MADRID (AFP) — Equatorial Guinea's exiled opposition leader Severo Moto was released Monday from a Spanish jail four months after he was detained for allegedly trying to send weapons to the oil-rich African nation.
Moto left the jail in the town of Navalcarnero some 30 kilometres (20 miles) southeast of Madrid at around 1:00 p.m. (1100 GMT), a prison system spokesman said.
Last week judge Santiago Pedraz agreed to release Moto, who has had political asylum in Spain since 1986, provided he paid 10,000 euros' (14,690 dollars) bail.
Police detained Moto in April after weapons were found in the boot of a car in the Spanish port of Sagunto that was bound for Malabo, the capital of Equatorial Guinea, a former Spanish colony.
Moto has denied any involvement in arms trafficking.
He was sentenced in absentia to 62 years in prison in Equatorial Guinea for his alleged role in the failed coup against President Teodoro Obiang Nguema.
The plot hit world headlines after Mark Thatcher, son of Britain's former prime minister Margaret Thatcher, was arrested on suspicion of bankrolling it.
Thatcher pleaded guilty in 2005 to breaking South Africa's anti-mercenary laws but escaped prison with a fine and a four-year suspended sentence.
Moto's status as a political refugee was revoked by Spanish authorities in 2005 after they accused him of using the country as a base for several coup attempts against the government in Equatorial Guinea.
But Spain's Supreme Court overturned the ruling on appeal in March, stating that Moto posed no danger to Spain.
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