African anti-Western activist Kemi Seba has been released from French custody without any charges two days after his arrest, prosecutors said Thursday.
Pan-African militant Seba, whose real name is Stellio Gilles Robert Capo Chichi, was detained Monday on suspicion of “foreign interference” in French affairs, prosecutors said.
The activist, who has been sentenced in France several times for incitement to racial hatred, is often accused of anti-Semitism.
He was stripped of his French nationality in July.
The prosecutor’s office said he was released Wednesday without charges, although preliminary investigations into possible “foreign interference” were continuing.
Kemi Seba’s lawyer, Juan Branco, protested against the arrest, saying it had been made as part of an investigation into “intelligence sharing involving a foreign power” with a view to “stirring up hostilities or acts of aggression against France”.
A person found guilty on such charges risks up to 30 years in prison, Branco said.
Seba was also questioned about suspicion that he was passing to a foreign power intelligence “whose nature harms the fundamental interests of the nation”, a charge that carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in jail.
Hery Djehuty, coordinator for the “Urgences Panafricanistes” NGO of which Seba is the president, was also released, having been arrested at the same time.
Pan-Africanism is a global movement that calls for solidarity, or even political union, between all indigenous people of African ancestry. It has been cited as a factor in struggles of African independence movements against colonial powers including France.
Seba, who travels on a diplomatic passport issued by Niger, came to France to visit his sick father, Branco said.
His arrest in the street was “violent” and motivated by the “criminalisation of a political opponent and intellectual”, the lawyer said. “This is an extremely worrying situation.”
In Africa, Seba has been involved in protests against the CFA franc, a currency system used by 14 countries but part-managed by France, and that has been labelled by its opponents as neo-colonialist.
Seba, born in France to parents from Benin, was last year accused by French lawmaker Thomas Gassilloud, then chairman of the National Assembly’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.
Two groups that he founded, including Tribu K, were dissolved by the French justice ministry for disseminating “racist and anti-Semitic” ideology.
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