July 7 (Reuters) - British mercenary Simon Mann was jailed on Monday for 34 years by a court in Equatorial Guinea for a failed 2004 coup plot in which he said the son of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was also involved. Below are brief portraits of Mann and Mark Thatcher, son of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. * SIMON MANN: -- Educated at the exclusive Eton public school, Simon Mann is a former British army officer turned mercenary who has already served four years in a Zimbabwean jail after being found guilty of trying to buy weapons for the alleged plot. -- Mann is a descendant of one of Britain's brewing families who accumulated wealth and influence in the mid-20th century. His father George captained the England cricket team in the 1940s as his father had before him in the 1920s. -- Simon took a different route. A South African citizen with a home in the plush Cape Town neighbourhood of Constantia, he worked with former mercenary groups Executive Outcomes and later with Tim Spicer's Sandline International. -- Mann was arrested at Harare airport in March 2004 with a plane load of weapons and men. He said they were heading to the Democratic Republic of Congo to provide diamond mine security. -- Other alleged coup plotters were detained in Equatorial Guinea, casting doubt on the alibi, and Mann was tried and found guilty of violating Zimbabwean immigration, firearms and security laws and sentenced to seven years' imprisonment. -- In May 2007 a Zimbabwean court ruled that Mann could be extradited to Equatorial Guinea to stand trial for the coup plot and, although he fought the ruling on the grounds that it would be a death sentence. -- He lost, and in the middle of the night in January this year he was flown in secret from Harare to the Black Beach jail in Equatorial Guinea. * MARK THATCHER: -- Mark Thatcher, the only son of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, has had a globetrotting career of controversy and adventure. He pleaded guilty in 2005 in a South African case tied to accusations of a coup plot in Equatorial Guinea. -- Thatcher, accused of bankrolling the coup attempt, admitted making investments without properly overseeing their purpose, and was fined $500,000. He has always denied knowingly being involved in any coup plot. -- His personal adventures, business dealings and a career in motor sports were frequently in the newspapers during his mother's time in power. -- In one incident, he and his French co-driver were lost in the Sahara for six days in 1982 during the Paris-Dakar car rally. -- He married his second wife, Sarah Russell, earlier this year, after divorcing his American wife of 18 years, Diane. For main story, click on [nL07138741] (Reporting by Jeremy Lovell and Peter Graff, Editing by David Cutler)
Fishermen pull in nets of sardines on Scottburgh beach some 60 km (37 miles) south of Durban June 13, 2008. The east coast of South Africa is host to an annual ...
