Equatorial Guinea's president frees ex-minister who called him 'demon'

MALABO, Equatorial Guinea

Former Equatorial Guinea justice minister Ruben Maye Nsue Mangue, imprisoned since August 2022 for calling the oil-rich country's leader a "demon", has been released following a presidential amnesty.

Mangue (pictured), also a pastor, told our reporter on Monday that he had to undergo a thorough health check but said he was doing well and had not been "tortured in prison".

"I am free," he said over the telephone, following Friday's amnesty.

He had been arrested over an audio recording that went viral on WhatsApp for calling the central African's nation's leader Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo a "demon... sequestering his people" while calling for a national dialogue.

"I did not receive a lawyer's visit, I did not go on trial, I was in preventive detention," Mangue said.

In November 2022, at the age of 80, Obiang won a sixth term with an official 94.9 percent of the vote, prompting the United States to voice "serious doubts" over the results.

Human rights groups regularly accuse him of abuses including arbitrary detentions, disappearances and torture. He has previously denied the accusations.