The former Zambian president, Mr Kenneth Kaunda, walked free from court yesterday after the state dropped all charges that he knew about a coup plot last year.
The Attorney General, Mr Bonaventure Mutale, announced he was withdrawing the charges just minutes after the opening of the trial, sent up to Lusaka's High Court by magistrates in April.
The man who led Zambia for 27 years, since independence from Britain until he was ousted in democratic elections in 1991, vowed immediately to continue to be a thorn in the side of his successor and foe, President Frederick Chiluba.
"I am still an active politician. I will continue with my civil disobedience campaign because I was born that way," the 74-year-old told reporters as he left the High Court to the deafening cheers of hundreds of jubilant supporters.
Western diplomats said they believed his freedom had come as part of a deal with Mr Chiluba brokered by President Nelson Mandela of South Africa, leaders of whose ANC spent years in exile in Lusaka as Dr Kaunda's guests. The trial was continuing of a further 80 people charged with treason, who could be sentenced to death.