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Mercenary Simon Mann, who was recently released from a West African jail after being pardoned for plotting a coup in West Africa, has made dramatic claims in an exclusive ´óÏó´«Ã½ interview that he fears for his life.

Mann also claims in the interview for ´óÏó´«Ã½ Four's Storyville – Simon Mann's African Coup – Black Beach that his friend Mark Thatcher was one of the investors behind the plan to overthrow President Teodoro Obiang in Equatorial Guinea and knew where his cash was going. This is a claim that Thatcher has always strongly denied.

When questioned in the interview Mann explains he was very close to his neighbour Mark Thatcher in South Africa’s exclusive Constantia to the extent that he holidayed with Thatcher and his mother Margaret.

"I always sat next to her [Margaret Thatcher] at dinner parties. She liked me. We even went on holiday together with them, we went to the game reserve."

Reiterating claims he made in his trial in Malabo about the "architects" behind the coup he told ´óÏó´«Ã½ Four that he had been informed by an unnamed intermediary that the Spanish Government (former colonial rulers of oil rich Equatorial Guinea) were supportive of the coup.

Mann explains: "The promise, as it was told to me, was the day after Severo Moto takes power, you will get international recognition de facto from Spain and you will have available to you 3,000 Guardia Civil."

Old Etonian Mann, aged 57, was pardoned by Obiang after serving 18 months of a 34-year sentence in Equatorial Guinea's notorious Black Beach prison and returned to the UK this autumn. During his trial security was foremost with even the press being searched for hidden weapons.

Mann told Storyville that this threat was still uppermost in his mind: "There are probably some people around who would be quite happy to hear that I'd died and so security is an issue."

Simon Mann's interview can be seen on Storyville's Simon Mann's African Coup – Black Beach on Tuesday 1 December, ´óÏó´«Ã½ Four, 9.00pm.

BR