U.K.'S MANN 'FINE' IN E GUINEA JAIL !

Mann was arrested in 2004 and again last year. Briton Simon Mann, accused of plotting a coup in Equatorial Guinea, has been shown on television, apparently in good health despite fears of torture. The US ambassador has seen him and says he is "fine", according to the British Foreign Office. He was extradited to the capital, Malabo, from Zimbabwe last week without the knowledge of his lawyers. The ex-SAS officer was jailed in Zimbabwe on arms charges in 2004, and rearrested after his release last May.

Equatorial Guinea has a poor human rights record. Amnesty International says that a German national arrested in the country over the same alleged coup plot was tortured before he died in prison. Mann, 55, was seen in handcuffs, leg irons and a blue prison uniform in the notorious Black Beach prison in Malabo. He was surrounded by military personnel.

Government spokesman Santiago Efuman said that Mann would be put on trial and that there was "proof showing Simon Mann was the hand guiding the actions of the mercenaries against Equatorial Guinea". A British Foreign Office spokeswoman said a consul based in Nigeria had travelled to Equatorial Guinea and was trying to meet him. "Mr Mann's welfare remains our number one priority," she said. "We continue to make representations at the highest levels over the fact that he was moved from Zimbabwe without notice."

He was arrested in Zimbabwe in 2004 after arriving from South Africa on board a plane carrying weapons. He was accused of trying to fetch arms for a coup against Equatorial Guinea President Teodoro Obiang Nguema and jailed.

Grim jail conditions await

He maintains he was going to help guard a mine in Democratic Republic of Congo. More than 60 men arrested with him - most of them South African citizens of Angolan origin - were released in 2005 after serving a year's sentence in Zimbabwe. Sir Mark Thatcher, son of former UK Prime Minister now Baroness Thatcher, was fined and received a suspended sentence in South Africa for his involvement in the affair. Another 23 people, mostly South Africans, were convicted in Equatorial Guinea itself. One South African, Nick du Toit, remains in prison in Equatorial Guinea, serving a 34-year sentence.

In 2005, Amnesty reported that those arrested in Equatorial Guinea faced starvation, as they had been given just a cup of rice a day. Officials in Equatorial Guinea denied those claims. They have said Mann will get a fair trial and will not face the death penalty. Equatorial Guinea, an oil-rich former Spanish colony, has been ruled by President Obiang since he seized power from his uncle in a coup in 1979.

BBC NEWS REPORT.