Congolese opposition leader released from prison

Congolese opposition leader Jean-Bertrand Ewanga, who was sentenced to a year in prison for insulting President Joseph Kabila was released Thursday afternoon, according to his party.

“He is free and is already at his home. I wasn’t there but he called me himself to announce his freedom,” Clement Luamba, one of Ewanga’s advisers, told AFP.

“He is to be officially released tomorrow.”

Contacted by AFP, Ewanga, secretary-general of the Union for the Congolese Nation, said he had no comment, preferring to “savour” his return home to friends and family.

Ewanga was one of the primary speakers at a rally in August of last year in Kinshasa against modifying the constitution to allow Kabila a controversial third term.

The opposition leader was arrested the day after the rally and sentenced to one year in prison in September 2014 for “insulting a head of state, members of the government and members of parliament”, allegations that he denied.