Controversial activist Kemi Seba, known for his fiercely anti-Western, pan-Africanist stance, has been released from French custody without charges, two days after he was arrested in Paris.
French prosecutors confirmed on Thursday that Seba was released the day before, although preliminary investigations into his activities are continuing.
The France-born activist, whose real name is Stellio Gilles Robert Capo Chichi, was detained on Monday on suspicion of "foreign interference" in French affairs.
He has previously been sentenced in France several times for incitement to racial hatred, is often accused of antisemitism and was stripped of his French nationality in July.
Seba's lawyer, Juan Branco, told a press conference the arrest came as part of an investigation into colluding with a foreign power to incite aggression or hostility against France and undermining its national interests.
Such charges carry a possible sentence of up to 30 years in prison, Branco said.
An aide of Seba and organiser in his social justice movement Urgences Panafricanistes ("Pan-Africanist Emergencies"), Hery Djehuty, was apprehended with him and freed at the same time.
Celebrating their release, Seba posted on X: "We are free. Those who want to extinguish us will have to wait... We are not fighting against a country, but against a system of oppression that is suffocating Africa and the West Indies."
Anti-France, pro-Russia
According to his lawyer, Seba – travelling on a diplomatic passport issued by Niger – came to France to visit his sick father.
Branco described his arrest as "violent" and suggested it was politically motivated.
Born in France to parents from Benin, Seba was last year accused by French lawmaker Thomas Gassilloud – then chairman of parliament's defence committee – of being a mouthpiece "for Russian propaganda" and serving "a foreign power that fuels anti-French sentiment".
Seba has publicly praised Russian President Vladimir Putin and aligned himself with pro-Russian networks, while two groups that he founded were dissolved by France's Justice Ministry for disseminating "racist and antisemitic" ideology.
Urgences Panafricanistes claims to fight against Western colonialism and is notably involved in protesting the CFA franc – a currency system used by 14 countries in Africa and part-managed by France.
