Guinea-Bissau opposition leader Domingos Simoes Pereira was released on Friday after months in detention following a military coup.
The ruling junta jailed senior politicians after toppling President Umaro Sissoco Embalo and seizing power in November, days after elections.
Military leaders said the intervention aimed to prevent bloodshed between supporters of rival presidential candidates during a tense political standoff.
Pereira, barred from running, backed a candidate who claimed victory alongside Embalo, who later fled the country.
Security forces escorted Pereira to his home outside the capital Bissau, accompanied by Senegal’s visiting defence minister, witnesses said.
The November coup occurred before official election results, marking Guinea-Bissau’s fifth military takeover since independence in 1974.
Endemic poverty, weak institutions and chronic instability have long fuelled corruption and drug trafficking across the fragile coastal state.