Guinea Bissau's opposition leader released from jail after months behind bars

Guinea-Bissau opposition leader Domingos Simoes Pereira was released from jail on Friday after spending months behind bars.

He was one of several senior politicians imprisoned by the military after it seized power in November, overthrowing President Umaro Sissoco Embalo just days after presidential elections.

The junta claimed it had acted to prevent bloodshed between supporters of rival candidates and announced it was taking control of the west African country for a period of one year.

Pereira had been barred from standing in the vote.

While the coup took place before official election results were released, both his preferred candidate, Fernando Dias, and Embalo had claimed victory.

The disposed president subsequently fled the country.

Pereira was accompanied to his home on the outskirts of the capital Bissau on Friday by security forces and the visiting Senegalese defence minister/

Guinea-Bissau has experienced repeated instability since gaining independence from Portugal in 1974, with only one president ever completing a full term in office.

Crippling poverty, chaotic administration and political chaos have also made the country a fertile ground for corruption and drug smuggling.