He dies mercenaries and a drawing coup

Friends confirmed that the former British army officer and mercenary Simon Man, who was part of the coup attempt in Equatorial Guinea in 2004, died a heart attack while exercising.

The 72 -year -old achieved millions of pounds from protecting companies in conflict areas before participating in a failed attempt to overthrow the western state ruler in West Africa.

Man was sentenced to 34 years imprisonment for weapons, and later said he was “the director, not the architect” of the scheme.

In 2009, the former SAS commando was pardoned, and he was released and was given 48 hours to leave the country.

This conspiracy was an attempt to overthrow President Tudoro Obiang Nujima – while Man and two conspirators said that the aim of installing opposition leader Severo Moto.

It was revealed after the police in the Zimbabwe capital collected a plane that had flew from South Africa.

Man and more than 60 others were arrested, amid allegations that they were mercenaries.

They said they were providing security to a mine in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Man enrolled at the Special School of Eiton School before studying at the Sandhurst Military Royal Academy and then joined the Scottish guards.

He became a member of the SAS unit – the army’s special forces unit – and rose through ranks to become a leader.

In 2011, he said that the coup attempt in Equatorial Guinea – who saw him was arrested with his mercenary colleagues after an attempt to load weapons on a plane in Zimbabwe – by the CIA.

After spending three years of 34 -year prison sentence in Zimbabwe, he was transferred to Black Beach prison in Equatorial Guinea.

Speaking in 2011 about this step, he said, “Friends, family and enemies” told him “if that happened, you had, you are a dead man.”

After being pardoned and released, he expressed his regret for what he did, saying that “whatever good money”, the moral issue “must accumulate.”