Equatorial Guinea President, Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo has freed ex-justice minister Ruben Maye Nsue Mangue, imprisoned since August 2022 for calling him a “demon”.
Mangue was released following a presidential amnesty on Friday, July 5, 2024.
The ex-minister who is also a pastor confirmed this to AFP on Monday, saying that he had to undergo a thorough health check but said he was doing well and had not been “tortured in prison”.
Mangue, 61, was arrested on the night of August 7, 2022, in the eastern town of Mongomo, after being summoned there to a meeting with the ruling party.
Five days after the arrest of the ex-minister, who is also a clergyman, the justice ministry issued an order forbidding him from preaching and accusing him of “provoking public disorder”.
On July 25, the former justice minister in a Whatsapp voice note that went viral criticized the president’s management of the country, describing him as a “demon… holding his people prisoner”, and calling for national dialogue.
Ruben Maye was justice minister from 1998 to 2004, then named ambassador to the United States in 2013.
President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo has ruled Equatorial Guinea with an iron fist for more than 43 years, making him the longest-serving non-monarchic leader in the world.
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