MOSCOW, June 24, 2008
Russia Frees U.S. Pastor Jailed For Ammo
Preacher Whose Humanitarian Labor Includes Work With Addicts Was Arrested In Feb.
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U.S. pastor Phillip Miles leaves jail in Moscow, Tuesday, June 24, 2008. Russian authorities have released Miles, who spent almost five months in jail for importing hunting-rifle bullets to Russia as a gift for a friend. (AP PHOTO)
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Phillip Miles is seen behind bars in a Moscow court on Monday, April 21, 2008. He was arrested Feb. 3, several days after customs agents at a Moscow airport found a box of rifle shells in his luggage. He was released June 24, 2008. (AP Photo/Mikhail Metzel)
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Fast Facts Russia Learn about the people, economy and history.
The release of Phillip Miles, 58, came a day after the Moscow City Court reduced his three-year sentence for smuggling and ordered him set free.
Miles, a pastor at Christ Community Church in Conway, South Carolina, said he was well treated in custody.
"The Russian people are the most wonderful people in the world," he said after walking out of Detention Center No. 5 on the grimy edge of Moscow, where he was met by a friend, a U.S. Embassy representative and his lawyer, who was bearing red roses.
The pastor said he hoped to continue his humanitarian work in Russia, which includes bringing recovered drug addicts from the United States to help recovering addicts in Russia. "The Lord willing I'll be back," he said.
Miles was convicted in April after security officers at a Moscow airport found a box of .300-caliber cartridges in his luggage. He apologized repeatedly, saying the ammunition was for a Russian friend, also a pastor, who had recently bought a new Winchester hunting rifle, and that he did not know that bringing ammunition into the country was illegal.
"Who would risk prison for a $25 box of bullets that you can buy right here in Moscow?" Miles said Tuesday.
His lawyer, Vladimir Ryakhovsky, called it an honest mistake but said the English-language customs signs at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport were unclear and confusing.
Russian officers confiscated the ammunition when Miles arrived on Jan. 29 but allowed him to continue on to Perm, a city about 750 miles east of Moscow. He was arrested when he returned on Feb. 3.
Miles has traveled to Russia more than 10 times with Evangel Fellowship International, a charity organization founded by his father in 1983, which has given more than $11 million in aid, primarily to Russian hospitals.
He plans to leave Russia once he has obtained an exit visa, expected in the coming days.
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- Two out of three posters here condemn this man because he is a Christian.
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- What an idiot...
Posted by kennedy7955 at 05:07 PM : Jun 24, 2008
To be uninformed does not make you an idiot, To know the rules and still do it, Does. - Reply to this comment
- I think they should have kept him. Before i travel internationally i always check what the laws are of the country i am going to.
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- What an idiot...
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