Simon Mann sent to Equatorial Guinea

Simon Mann, the Old Etonian who has languished in a Zimbabwean jail for more than three years after he was accused of plotting a coup in the West African state of Equatorial Guinea, has been flown out of Zimbabwe to meet his fate at the hands of the man he allegedly tried to overthrow, President Teodoro Obiang Nguema.

On Wednesday, Mann lost a court appeal in Harare against a decision to extradite him to Equatorial Guinea. The First Post's correspondent, Moses Moyo, reports that later that night, on the pretext of a visit to the doctor, Mann was taken from the Chikurubi maximum security jail in a white Nissan 4x4 and flown out of the country on a plane sent by Equatorial Guinea.

Zimbabwean authorities are refusing to comment on Mann's disappearance. His lawyer, Jonathan Asamkange, who found his client's cell empty when he went to visit him at Chikurubi, will today lodge an application with Zimbabwe's High Court, demanding to be informed of Mann's whereabouts. "Deporting a person at night is not only mischievous but unlawful," said Asamkange.

Friends and family of the former SAS officer will fear the worst. Mann, now 55, has always claimed he faces certain death if he is sent to Equatorial Guinea. The authorities there have promised not to execute him, but they are expected to consign him to the notorious Black Beach Prison in the capital, Malabo, and throw away the key.

Amnesty International reported in 2005 that Black Beach inmates had to survive on daily rations of a cup of rice and one or two bread rolls and were in danger of starving to death. By coincidence, on the day Mann lost his appeal against extradition, Equatorial Guinea withdrew an invitation to Manfred Nowak, a UN special envoy, to visit its detention facilities and investigate the possible use of torture on prisoners.

Mann was arrested in Harare in 2004 when a Boeing 727, packed with 60-plus armed mercenaries, was intercepted at the airport, apparently en route to Equatorial Guinea. Ever since, the oil-rich state has demanded his extradition.

During the time he has been in jail, his second wife, Amanda Mann, has lived on the family estate in Hampshire. Sir Mark Thatcher, son of the former British PM, was a friend of Mann, who lived near him in Cape Town. Thatcher was convicted under South Africa's anti-mercenary laws after he admitted hiring a helicopter for Mann which would have been used in the alleged plot.