By Mark John
Dakar - Equatorial Guinea has pardoned British mercenary Simon Mann for his role in a failed 2004 coup plot, allowing him to seek medical treatment after serving just over one year of a 34-year sentence.
The pardon by President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo comes just weeks before a November 29 election in which Obiang is expected to seek and win a new mandate to lead sub-Saharan Africa's third largest oil producer, which he has governed since 1979.
Despite his release, Mann could still face questioning in Britain as police said they were investigating whether the coup plot involved any offences against the law there.
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"The pardon was allowed for by presidential decree and granted on humanitarian grounds," the communication ministry said in a statement released on its website late on Monday, citing Mann's need for medical care and to be with his family.
Mann had "shown sufficient and credible signs of repentance and a desire to take his place in society", it said, adding that the former special forces officer had 24 hours to leave the tiny Central African state and was banned from returning.
Obiang, who this week is due to host South African President Jacob Zuma for talks, also pardoned Nick du Toit, a South African former soldier jailed for 34 years in the same affair.
In Johannesburg, a spokesperson for Zuma said the South African leader welcomed du Toit's pardon. Zuma's trip was aimed at promoting economic ties in sectors including mining, energy, agriculture and tourism, a government statement said.
Eton-educated Mann was sentenced in July 2008 for conspiring to topple Obiang after being arrested by authorities in Zimbabwe four years earlier along with 70 other mercenaries en route to Equatorial Guinea aboard a plane.
One of the last of the prominent "dogs of war" still active in Africa, Mann portrayed himself during his trial as a pawn of international businessmen he said were trying to seize power.
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