ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia, May 26 (UPI) -- Voice of America correspondent Peter Heinlein and his translator were released from police custody in Ethiopia Saturday, officials said.
Heinlein and his translator Simegineh Yekoye were arrested on the outskirts of Addis Ababa upon leaving a local mosque where they had been filming, the Ethiopian reporter Web site said Saturday.
VOA said Saturday Heinlein and Simegineh were released and all charges were dropped after an official from the U.S. Embassy's consular section appeared at the prison Saturday morning.
VOA and the Committee to Protect Journalists expressed their relief in a statement Saturday, condemning the "restriction imposed by the Ethiopian government on foreign journalists."
VOA quoted Heinlein as saying he believed his arrest was linked to his reporting on a dispute between Ethiopia's Muslim minority and the government over the leadership of the nation's Muslim community.
