TIMELINE: Coup plot case in Equatorial Guinea

(Reuters) - British mercenary Simon Mann was on Monday sentenced to 34 years and four months in prison for his confessed role in a failed 2004 coup plot in Equatorial Guinea.

He went on trial in Equatorial Guinea last month.

Here is a chronology of the case:

March 7, 2004 - Zimbabwe seizes U.S.-registered cargo plane carrying 64 suspected mercenaries and a cargo of military equipment.

March 8 - About 15 suspected mercenaries are arrested in Equatorial Guinea in an investigation linked to the plane in Zimbabwe. Most of the suspects in both groups are South African.

March 16 - Zimbabwe charges 70 suspected mercenaries with conspiring to murder Equatorial Guinea President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo.

July 28 - Simon Mann, a former member of Britain's elite SAS regiment accused by Zimbabwe of leading the suspected mercenaries, pleads guilty to trying to possess dangerous weapons.

August 23 - Fourteen foreign suspected mercenaries and five Equatorial Guineans go on trial in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea.

August 25 - South African police arrest Mark Thatcher, son of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, on suspicion of involvement in the plot. He is released from house arrest after posting 2 million rand (about $300,000) bail on September 3.

August 27 - A Zimbabwean court finds Mann guilty of trying to possess dangerous weapons and jails him for seven years.

November 26 - Equatorial Guinea court convicts 11 foreigners and two local men of charges stemming from the plot. Nick Du Toit, a South African alleged to have led an advance group of mercenaries, receives the stiffest sentence of 34 years' imprisonment.

January 13, 2005 - Thatcher pleads guilty to a role in the plot under a plea bargain agreement allowing him to avoid jail by paying a 3 million rand fine and assisting South African authorities. He receives a four-year suspended jail sentence.

May 15 - Zimbabwe frees 62 South Africans more than a year after they were arrested but the next day South Africa says it will charge them under its strict anti-mercenary laws.

May 9, 2007 - Zimbabwe agrees to extradite Mann to Equatorial Guinea.

January 30, 2008 - Mann is deported to Equatorial Guinea from Zimbabwe to face coup plot charges after losing an appeal against extradition. He had served four years for buying weapons without a license.

March 11 - Mann says he plotted to oust Equatorial Guinea's president, but the scheme failed.