A topic I dare not come up with Simon Mann as we sit in the African prison of his hell? The dictator he was trying to overthrow was going to eat his testicles! Ian Gallagher

When I first met Simon Mann, he was walking through a dusty prison yard with irons and handcuffs.

It’s not that his twists and turns are entirely due to his restraints. Later, he deliberately moved slowly, preferably to taste every precious fresh air, lest any of them be his last.

It was March 2008, and I flew from London to interview Britain’s most famous Fortune soldier – who died suddenly on Friday at the age of 72, at the Black Beach, the most notorious prison in Africa.

In those days, the prison on the tropical volcanic island of Bioko, on the coast of Equatorial Guinea, was more like the Devil’s Island than the fictional Papiron’s homeland.

Torture prevailed, malaria and yellow fever prevailed, and the slipperyness of rats and sewage on the cell floor, the guards did not expect to let the prisoners starve to death for several days. No one fantasizes about the chance of Mann being alive.

President Teodoro Obiang has been overthrown by the country’s murdered dictator, leading a group of mercenaries to go to the country’s murdered dictator, President Teodoro Obiang has spent four years in the highest security prison in Zimbabwe, where he was mock execution and threatened to feed the crocodile alive.

You might think that this is enough. But things got worse.

After the extradition campaign, Mann ran around Africa to the oil-rich Equatorial Guinea, sandwiched between Cameroon and Gabon, and delivered directly to Obiang, whose tendency was a famous cannibal tendency.

In March 2008, Ian Gallagher flew from London to Africa’s most notorious prison, Black Beach, and from London to Britain’s most famous wealth soldier Simon Mann (photo right)

There was news that he was going to eat old Eton testicles and drag his exposed body to the street.

By the way, I once sat in an interview with him sitting in his Presidential Palace, flanked by bodyguards on a throne under an almost life-sized portrait.

He shook his head. He protested, “I am not a cannibal, I am a humanitarian.” I decided not to follow the key points.

However, it seemed unreasonable to bring Mann the idea of ​​homosexualism that morning in Black Beach Prison. So to say, he had enough on his plate.

After enjoying the sun in the prison yard, he showed up at the door of an air-conditioned courthouse, part of the prison complex where I was waiting for the email on Sunday’s photographer Keith Waldegrave.

We had expected a pitiful wreck, but he was a little fragile here, but all smiles and played the kind owner as if he welcomed us on the 20 acres of Inchmery on the banks of the Beaulieu River in Hampshire.

“Welcome, welcome- you’re very happy to come.” The former SAS force commander turned around.

He will remain optimistic throughout our interview. Even so, it was hard to reconcile his appearance and barely stood out, but his exploration of dogs in Sierra Leone and Angola made him headlines around the world due to his restraints and grey prison uniforms.

Mann President Teodoro Obiang (2024 in Maltonia) spent four years in Zimbabwe’s highest security prison in Maltonia

Pictured: Mann and his second wife, Amanda, share four of his seven children with him

After all, it was someone who planned to land here, this steaming West African outpost was so shocking style, leading nearly 70 mercenaries on a plane loaded with guns and ammunition, if he hadn’t been arrested, that is, on March 7, 2004, with the plot scattered with spectacular circumstances.

“Where do you want me to be,” he asked happily. Prisoners led their star prisoners to sit on chairs in front of the dock. Obiang was behind him, glittering from the framed photos hanging on the wall.

Mann shoved his specs to the top of his nose with handcuffs while chatting, and announced: “I do want to talk to you about this. I think things are beyond the stage of the graduation story.

Therefore, his extraordinary story is undoubtedly. He said his mission was to replace Obiang with Severo Moto NSA, the leader of the equation opposition in Madrid.

Equatorial Guinea has the third largest oil reserve in sub-Saharan Africa, making it a valuable award.

Others, along with the dark tycoon, were said to be part of the dark incident, including Jeffrey Archer, the core politician at the time of the New Labor government and the core politician of Thatcher’s son Mark, who was later arrested.

Mann told me that Sir Mark Thatcher, described as “a very naughty boy” and he was at the heart of the plot, claiming that he was obsessed with how best to use the commercial interests of Equatorial Guinea after the acquisition.

Of course, Mann will also get generous cuts.

Mann told Gallagher that Sir Mark Thatcher (pictured), who he called “a very naughty boy” and was at the heart of the plot, claiming that he was obsessed with how best to use Equatorial Guinea’s commercial interests after the acquisition

Image: Simon Mann’s son Jack (right) and Prince Harry at a polo event in Ascot, Berkshire in May 2015

He outlined the role of London-based Lebanese oil tycoon Eli Calil, now dead, who listed British politicians including Peter Mandelson as his influential circle of friends.

Carrier and Sir Mark Thatcher said, Mann said: “It’s made me bad. It’s these two… What I’m most painful is because of their intimate involvement in all of these aspects.

After his arrest in Zimbabwe, Mann famously smelted a letter to his wife, his Harare prison cell, asking “smelly”, “Scratcher” and others to take him away. Mann confirmed: “The smell is Eli Calille.”

This is the name my wife gave him. She is very good at assigning names to people. Yes, Thatcher is known as the Scraper. However, “Wanga” has not arrived, and for four years, Mann’s anger is still primitive.

“When you’re on an expedition, stuck halfway up the mountain, you won’t expect other expeditions to fall down the tent, roll up your sleeping bags, and go back to London,” Mann said. “It makes me very angry. These two should also be in shackles.

But when he talks extensively about the coup plot, he casts a shadow on his personal affairs. Desire not to upset his master, he articulated the situation he endured and said he was treated well.

Even being denied access to exercise hospitals is a strange source. “It’s OK,” he said, standing in the room moving, laughing, “I just walked down the cell like this. No problem.”

It is the stiff lips in Excelsis. Can we expect anything? The British public school system and his military training taught Watney Mann’s Brewing Family Contact Mann, all involving resilience.

Gallagher sees Mann again at a party in London. He smiled and joked about his suffering again (Photo by Mann in Macedonia in 2024

But how did he stop himself from going crazy? Or lose hope? “Ah, that’s a secret,” he said strangely. “I have seven kids in England and I miss them desperately.”

His wife has not been to Equatorial Guinea and has not visited during her imprisonment in Zimbabwe. “I don’t miss her and tell her. I don’t want her to see me like this.

It was during our interview that National Security Secretary Manuel Nguema MBA watched from the back of the court that he thought it was time for Mann to return to his cell. “The minister has a lot to do today,” said an assistant. “He is very busy at the moment.”

Later that day, when the police apparently thwarted another possible coup, how busy he became. A car transported from Spain was intercepted with hidden guns and ammunition.

It reminds people that the covetable eyes always focus on the former Spanish colonies, seen as “insignificant” microlattice on the world stage, and then discovering two huge oil fields that changed fate.

It is impossible to regret desperately for Mann, a romantic adventurer who was brought back to his solitary confinement life. A few months later, he was sentenced to 34 years in jail.

Some people portray Mann as the Wodehousian character, a clumsy Bertie Wooster. But he is smarter than that and manages to convince the Obiange regime that he can help them work hard to throw the two men (Thatcher and Calil) into the Black Beach.

Just 15 months later, Mann was pardoned by the dictator for his family trying to overthrow and return to England, where he was introduced to his infant son Arthur, who was born in a Zimbabwe prison.

15 months later, Mann (pictured) was released by the Equatorial Guinea regime and returned to his family in England, where he was introduced to his infant son Arthur, who was born while in jail in Zimbabwe.

Formally, the Equatorial Guinea regime released Mann on compassionate grounds due to the need for medical treatment. Many observers believe that the early issuance was a reward for Mann’s willingness to identify traitors in the coup territory.

A year later, I met him again at a party in London. He smiled and joked about his ordeal. We spoke several times since then, once, and he sought advice to become a foreign journalist in the newspaper. Apparently, his experiences did not make him interested in adventure.

Yesterday, I spoke with writer and film director Jim Nally, who assisted Mann in his memoir. He said he tried “every technique in the book” to make Mann “open”.

“I think it might be helpful to discuss his homecoming. He keeps postponing. He doesn’t want to “do this” at home. We finally agreed to meet in an old friend’s office.

“We were taken to an office with a large leather sofa. This was the first time we didn’t sit at the table. The notebook, pen and tape recorder were ready and I asked him to start with his journey back to England. He collapsed. I’ve never seen a man cry for 90 minutes.

“The head between the knees, the body is full of sadness, he kept apologizing. And asked if the “little pieces outside” could be seen. I assured him that there were no other witnesses.

Simon can justify everything except what his time does to his wife and children. He swore to me to keep things secret about what happened that day- but I think he wanted them to know.