PORTLAND, Ore., May 24 (UPI) -- An Oregon court Monday dropped charges against an attorney linked to the terrorist train bombing in Madrid were due to a fingerprint-identification error.
A statement on the Portland U.S. District Court Web site said Brandon Mayfield was no longer considered a material witness in the investigation and had been ordered released from custody last week.
Mayfield, 37, was arrested May 6 by FBI agents who raided his suburban Portland home after matching his fingerprint to one found by Spanish authorities on a bag of unexploded detonators in the wake of the March 11 bombing that killed 191 passengers.
Mayfield is a convert to Islam; however, the court said the material-witness proceedings were dismissed "due to the misidentification by the FBI of a fingerprint."
Spain has since identified the fingerprint on the detonator bag as that of an Algerian man.
