{"page":"\u003clink rel=\"stylesheet\" href=\"https://lessonplanet.com/assets/packs/css/resources-572d6a42.css\" /\u003e\n\u003clink rel=\"stylesheet\" href=\"https://lessonplanet.com/assets/packs/css/lp_boclips_stylesheets-f4d0de30.css\" media=\"all\" /\u003e\n\u003cdiv data-title='UK coup-plotter and SAfrican mercenaries freed' data-url='/boclips/videos/5c54c120d8eafeecae14ff7e' data-video-url='/boclips/videos/5c54c120d8eafeecae14ff7e' id='bo_player_modal'\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='boclips-resource-page modal-dialog panel-container'\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='react-notifications-root'\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-header'\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-type'\u003e\n\u003ci aria-hidden='true' class='fai fa-regular fa-circle-play'\u003e\u003c/i\u003e\nVideo\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003ch1 class='rp-title' id='video-title'\u003e\nUK coup-plotter and SAfrican mercenaries freed\n\u003c/h1\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-actions'\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='mr-1'\u003e\n\u003ca class=\"btn btn-success\" data-posthog-event=\"Signup: LP Signup Activity\" data-posthog-location=\"body_link_boclips\" data-remote=\"true\" href=\"/subscription/new\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003eGet Free Access\u003c/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"\"\u003e for 10 Days\u003c/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e!\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-body'\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-info'\u003e\n\u003cdiv aria-label='Hide resource details' class='rp-hide-info' role='button' tabindex='0'\u003e\u0026times;\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003ci aria-label='Expand resource details' class='rp-expand-info fai fa-solid fa-up-right-and-down-left-from-center' role='button' tabindex='0'\u003e\u003c/i\u003e\n\u003ci aria-label='Compress resource details' class='rp-compress-info fai fa-solid fa-down-left-and-up-right-to-center' role='button' tabindex='0'\u003e\u003c/i\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-rating'\u003e\n\u003cspan class='resource-pool'\u003e\n\u003cspan class='pool-label'\u003ePublisher:\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003cspan class='pool-name'\u003e\n\u003cspan class='text'\u003e\u003ca data-publisher-id=\"30356011\" href=\"/search?publisher_ids%5B%5D=30356011\"\u003eCurated Video\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-description'\u003e\n\u003cspan class='short-description'\u003e1. Mid of British coup-plotter Simon Mann and South African mercenaries Nicolaas du Toit (in red), Sergio Cardoso, Jose Sundays and George Alerson in courtroom2. Mann seated in courtroom talking to a woman seated behind him 3. Mann being...\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003cspan class='full-description hide'\u003e1. Mid of British coup-plotter Simon Mann and South African mercenaries Nicolaas du Toit (in red), Sergio Cardoso, Jose Sundays and George Alerson in courtroom\u003cbr/\u003e2. Mann seated in courtroom talking to a woman seated behind him \u003cbr/\u003e3. Mann being handed envelope by court official, walks away\u003cbr/\u003e4. Mann shaking hands with court officials \u003cbr/\u003e5. SOUNDBITE: (English) Simon Mann, pardoned coup-plotter: \u003cbr/\u003e\"I am very very grateful... (repeated in Spanish) ...for this pardon. (repeated in Spanish) ...I regret what happened in 2004. (repeated in Spanish)  ...It was wrong, (repeated in Spanish) ...and I am happy that we did not succeed in 2004. (repeated in Spanish) ...I am extremely grateful not only for my pardon, (repeated in Spanish) ...but also for the way in which I have been treated from the moment I arrived here in Equatorial Guinea in 2008. (repeated in Spanish) ...It is a fact that I have been made to feel more of a guest than a prisoner, (repeated in Spanish) ...and I am very grateful for this. (repeated in Spanish) ...I have been looked after extremely well.\" \u003cbr/\u003e6. Pardoned South African mercenary Nicolaas du Toit being handed envelope by the court officials \u003cbr/\u003e7. SOUNDBITE: (English) Simon Mann, pardoned coup-plotter: \u003cbr/\u003e\"But as far as I'm concerned, I am very anxious that Calil (Nigerian-born British citizen Eli Calil), Thatcher (Mark Thatcher) and one or two of the others, should face justice.\"\u003cbr/\u003e8. Pardoned South African mercenary being handed envelope by the court \u003cbr/\u003e9. SOUNDBITE: (English) Simon Mann, pardoned coup-plotter: \u003cbr/\u003e\"In prison have made statements to the UK police whose investigations are continuing in this case and I am very happy to restate those things in court in the UK as a witness for the prosecution.\"\u003cbr/\u003e10. SOUNDBITE: (English) Simon Mann, pardoned coup-plotter: \u003cbr/\u003e(Reporter: \"This pardon, is this the final point of your activity as a mercenary?\")\u003cbr/\u003e\"Most definitely.\"\u003cbr/\u003e11. Pardoned South African mercenaries Nicolaas du Toit (in red), Sergio Cardoso, Jose Sundays and George Alerson in courtroom \u003cbr/\u003eA British coup-plotter who has been freed in Equatorial Guinea along has said he is grateful for being pardoned by the government and regrets his role the affair. \u003cbr/\u003eSimon Mann along with four South African mercenaries were released from prison on Tuesday after being given a presidential pardon for their part in a foreign-bankrolled conspiracy to overthrow the government and take over the country's oil riches. \u003cbr/\u003eThe Supreme Court chief justice told The Associated Press on Tuesday that President Teodoro Obiang Nguema had granted the five men full pardons for the 2004 coup plot. \u003cbr/\u003e\"I am very very grateful for this pardon. I regret what happened in 2004. It was wrong and I am happy that we did not succeed,\" Mann said. \u003cbr/\u003eIn a spectacular trial last year, Simon Mann testified that US and European governments knew of the plan in advance and welcomed it as did international oil companies operating in the Central African nation, which is the continent's third largest oil producer. \u003cbr/\u003eHis testimony also implicated the son of former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher as chief bankroller, which Mark Thatcher denied. \u003cbr/\u003e\"I am very anxious that Calil (Nigerian-born British citizen Eli Calil), Thatcher (Mark Thatcher) and one or two of the others, should face justice,\" he added. \u003cbr/\u003eThe information minister said the men, who were freed from prison in the small West African country on Tuesday, would never be allowed to return to the country.\u003cbr/\u003eSupreme Court Chief Justice Jose Obono Olo, who was the attorney general who prosecuted the coup plotters, denied rumours that Mann was unwell and that any pressure had been brought by foreign governments. \u003cbr/\u003eBut a statement on the Ministry of Information Web site noted that Mann and the others were being freed with the hope that the accused return to their families and receive appropriate medical treatment according to their age and health.\u003cbr/\u003eIt said the Ministry of Justice, Culture and Prisons proposed the pardon to the president, who granted \"compassionate forgiveness.\"\u003cbr/\u003eEquatorial Guinea's president has said that the plan of the plotters was to set up a puppet government under exiled opposition leader Severo Moto, with the coup financiers controlling contracts to the country's oil wealth.\u003cbr/\u003eMann apparently can now look to a happier future that was not foreseen when he was sentenced in 2008 to more than 34 years in Malabo's Black Beach Prison, notorious for torture, unexplained deaths of inmates, a lack of food and much disease. \u003cbr/\u003eMany suspects in the Mann case said their confessions were obtained under torture, which the US State Department and others say is routine. \u003cbr/\u003eOne of the original 91 defendants, a German, died in his first days of custody after what Amnesty International said was torture.\u003cbr/\u003eSimon Mann, 57, helped found two South African private security companies, Executive Outcomes and Sand-line, that were involved in some of Africa's bloodiest civil wars. \u003cbr/\u003eExecutive Outcomes made millions guarding Angolan oil installations and helping rebels in Sierra Leone with brutal actions.\u003cbr/\u003eBut the coup in Equatorial Guinea, a former Spanish colony, unravelled before it even began.\u003cbr/\u003eMann and a planeload of other mercenaries were arrested in 2004 on a chartered aircraft in Zimbabwe, where they had flown to buy assault rifles, grenades and anti-tank rockets.\u003cbr/\u003eSeveral leading US oil companies, including Exxon Mobil, Amerada Hess and ChevronTexaco, operate in Equatorial Guinea.\u003cbr/\u003eThatcher pleaded guilty in a South African court to unwittingly helping fund the operation. He was fined and given a suspended sentence. \u003cbr/\u003eScotland Yard said it was investigating whether any offences were committed in Britain in connection with the alleged coup attempt in Equatorial Guinea.\u003cbr/\u003eEquatorial Guinea has become the richest country per capita in Africa since oil was discovered in the 1990s, yet the rate of infant deaths has actually increased since then, according to United Nations figures.\u003cbr/\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='action-container flex justify-between'\u003e\n\u003cbutton aria-expanded='false' aria-label='Read more description' class='rp-full-description' type='button'\u003e\n\u003ci class='fai fa-solid fa-align-left'\u003e\u003c/i\u003e\n\u003cspan id='read_more'\u003eRead More\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003c/button\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-report'\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv aria-labelledby='resource-details-heading' class='rp-info-section'\u003e\n\u003ch2 class='title' 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