SAS Captain | Mercenary | Political Prisoner | Simon Mann | Bought The T-Shirt Podcast #127

Simon Mann is a British former Special Air Service (SAS) army officer and legendary condottiere (not mercenary as often wrongly labelled). Simon trained at Sandhurst and was commissioned into the Scots Guards. On leaving the military, he co-founded the private military company, Executive Outcomes and co-founded Sandline International with fellow ex-Scots Guards Colonel Tim Spicer in 1996, operating mostly in Angola and Sierra Leone. On 7 March 2004, Mann is alleged to have led the 2004 Equatorial Guinea coup d'état attempt. He was arrested by Zimbabwean police in Harare airport, along with 64 other private contractors - branded as 'mercenaries'. Simon served three years of a four-year prison sentence in Zimbabwe and less than two years of a 34 years and four months sentence in Equatorial Guinea. Simon is now a much-sought-after public speaker and consultant.