A court in Equatorial Guinea convicted former British officer Simon Mann on Monday of being the key player in a failed 2004 coup plot in this Central African nation, and sentenced him to 34 years and four months in prison.

Judge Carlos Mangue upbraided the 55-year-old Briton, saying he "had failed to show an attitude of regret" despite his apology before the court. To underline his point, the judge gave Mann a prison sentence four years longer than the prosecution had asked for.

"Simon Mann is the principal person at the origin of the preparation, the organisation and the execution of this attempted coup," Mangue said.

Participated in attempt

During the trial last week, Mann acknowledged that he knowingly took part in the attempt to topple the government.

His lawyer, however, argued that Mann was a secondary player and not the author of the botched 2004 coup attempt.

Although most of its people are poor and its land area is small, Equatorial Guinea is Africa's number three oil producer.

Instal opposition

The prosecution charged that Mann and the other coup plotters intended to install exiled Oppo-sition Leader Severo Moto at the helm in exchange for a share of the nation's oil wealth.

Strongman President Teodoro Obiang seized control of the nation in a 1979 coup and his government is considered to be among Africa's worst violators of human rights. There have been numerous coup attempts since he took power and his administration has become increasingly brutal in silencing internal unrest.

Others convicted

In addition to Mann, the court also convicted six others Monday. Lebanese businessman Mohamed Salaam, convicted of aiding in coup attempt, was sentenced to 18 years, while five Equatorial Guineans were each sentenced to a little over five years.

Charges were dropped against a sixth Equatorial Guinean because of lack of evidence. Neither Mann nor the other defendants were allowed to speak in court.

He stood in his sky-blue prison uniform when the verdict was read, eyes fixed straight ahead.

Afterwards, he told Britain's Channel 4 News, "Maybe you can appeal, I don't know."

Coping with prison

Mann also said he had no idea about the possibility of a presi-dential pardon. Asked if he could cope with his long prison sentence, Mann was fatalistic.

"If you've got to push (yourself), you've got to," he said.

Mann was extradited to Equa-torial Guinea in January from Zimbabwe, where he was arrested in 2004 along with a planeload of about 70 other alleged coup plotters