Simon Mann ‘freed’ by the president he tried to oust

The British mercenary Simon Mann, whose wife Amanda feared was destined to die a lonely death in the infamous Black Beach prison in Equatorial Guinea, has been pardoned by the man he plotted to overthrow, President Teodoro Obiang. News of the pardon came on the eve of an official visit to the west African state by Jacob Zuma, the South African president.

Overnight, the Foreign Office was still attempting to establish the precise nature of the pardon, in which it played no part. But according to media reports, Obiang's information ministry has confirmed that "a complete pardon for humanitarian grounds" has already been signed and it is understood Mann could be home with his family in Hampshire within days.

Amanda, 42, was pregnant when he was arrested in 2004 in the Zimbabwean capital Harare after landing there with a team of mercenaries to buy arms, en route to Equatorial Guinea. If he does come home, he will be seeing his four-year-old son Arthur for the first time.

It is a remarkable outcome for the Old Etonian and former SAS officer, now 57. It would seem the pardon was granted not only on health grounds - Mann is reported to have undergone a hernia operation while in jail - but because he has shown the Obiang regime "credible signs of repentance".

At Mann's trial last summer in the state capital Malabo - where he was extradited from Zimbabwe earlier in the year - the presiding judge said the Englishman had failed to show "an attitude of regret", one of the reasons why he handed down a 34-year jail sentence.

Since then, however, it has been claimed that Mann handed over the names of various individuals and foreign governments involved in the attempted coup in return for his freedom.

However Mann achieved his freedom - assuming all goes according to plan this week - he will have escaped a fate worse than death.

Obiang has run his oil-rich nation in despotic style since he came to power in 1979. He enjoys his reputation as a brutal disciplinarian - and a cannibal to boot. He was once reported to have pledged to sodomise Mann before skinning him alive and parading his body through Malabo.

When Amanda Mann first heard in January 2008 that her husband had been spirited out of his jail cell in Harare and ended up in Malabo's Black Beach prison, she told the Daily Mail: "It was like a dagger to my heart when I heard he was there.

"One of the things that fills me with fear is they will beat the living daylights out of him, that it could be happening as I speak. Or that there will be one of those 'accidents' that happen in these places."

Among those alleged to have been involved in the 2004 plot are Sir Mark Thatcher, son of the former prime minister Margaret Thatcher, and still the subject of an international arrest warrant issued by Obiang's regime.

Another man implicated was the Lebanese businessman Ely Calil, who Mann said during his trial had masterminded the doomed plot. Both Calil and Thatcher continue to deny any involvement. ·