FACTBOX: Simon Mann, Eton-educated ex-SAS commando

(Reuters) - Equatorial Guinea has pardoned British ex-special forces officer Simon Mann, jailed last year for his role in a plot to overthrow President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, the Central African country's government website said.

Here are some key facts on Simon Mann:

ROAD TO JAIL:

-- Mann was arrested in March 2004 in Zimbabwe when he met a plane carrying dozens of men with military equipment which landed in Harare on what officials said was the first leg of a planned strike against Equatorial Guinea's President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo.

-- Another group of suspected foreign mercenaries was arrested in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea's island capital.

-- Mann was found guilty of weapons charges in August 2004 by a Zimbabwe magistrate.

-- In May 2007 a Zimbabwean court ruled that Mann could be extradited to Equatorial Guinea to stand trial for the coup plot and, although he fought the ruling on the grounds that it would be a death sentence.

-- Mann lost, and in the middle of the night in January 2008 he was flown in secret from Harare to the Black Beach jail in Equatorial Guinea. -- Mann was sentenced in July 2008 to just over 34 years in jail for conspiring to topple Obiang.

* LIFE DETAILS:

-- Educated at the elite Eton school, Mann is a descendant of one of Britain's wealthy brewing families who accumulated money and influence in the mid-20th century. His father George captained the England cricket team in the 1940s as his father had before him in the 1920s.

-- After leaving Eton, Mann attended Sandhurst, Britain's prestigious military training academy, and later became a member of the elite British SAS special forces. His assignments reportedly included stints in Northern Ireland, Europe and Central America.

-- Mann left the military in the 1980s for a new career in computer security and moved into business providing bodyguards to wealthy clients. From there, he helped to set up Executive Outcomes, a security outfit which was quickly sending armed security forces into some of Africa's most dangerous areas.

-- Later Mann was involved in the establishment of Sandline International, which news reports soon said was involved in a brutal civil war in Sierra Leone.

-- Mann dropped out of the limelight in the late 1990s, taking up residence in Cape Town's fanciest suburb Constantia -- also home to other famous British expats including Princess Diana's brother Earl Spencer and Mark Thatcher.

-- As an actor, he played a British officer in "Bloody Sunday," a 2002 film about the civil conflict in Northern Ireland.