Authorities arrested 37 people in July last year who were protesting over damage caused by the use of dynamite in mining operations and infrastructure projects on the volcanic island of some 17 square kilometres (6.6 square miles) off the coast of Gabon in the Gulf of Guinea.
They were accused of "protesting" and belonging to the separatist movement Ambo Legadu (Free Annobon), and transferred to the capital's Black Beach prison, which has been dubbed "infamous" by Amnesty International.
A court in the capital Malabo charged them with "insult and defamation, abusive exercise of fundamental rights and violation of the constitutional order".
Annobon, which has a population of about 5,000, became part of Equatorial Guinea when the small central African country gained independence from Spain in 1968.
The Ambo Legadu movement unilaterally declared Annobon independent from Equatorial Guinea in July 2022.
Its leader, Orlando Cartagena Lagar, denounced in an interview with AFP earlier this month Equatoguinean "dictatorship", "brutal pressure of the army" and a type of "slow genocide", citing a lack of electricity, water and food on the island accessible only by private plane or ferry twice a month.
The release of the 37 people by decree on Saturday was part of a wider move by President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo to pardon 476 prisoners on his 83rd birthday.
"The President of the Republic pardoned 476 prisoners, including two South Africans convicted of drug export and trafficking, as well as 37 individuals involved in the Annobon insurrection," the president's son and Vice President Teodoro Nguema Obiang said on X.
Equatorial Guinea, which is reliant on its oil and gas exports, has been led by Obiang for 45 years as the world's longest-serving head of state, excluding monarchs.
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