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Jailed over taxi dispute

An American university student is free following a weeklong detention in China for allegedly injuring a taxi driver who was roughing up his mother during a fare dispute, in a case that drew objections over the student's treatment from U.S. lawmakers.

Guthrie McLean, a student at the University of Montana, was released from a detention centre in Zhengzhou early Monday, according to his mother, Jennifer McLean, a teacher who lives in the central Chinese city.

"We are very, very very, very happy," Jennifer McLean wrote in an email to The Associated Press. She said the release — at 2 a.m. local time when her son was delivered to her doorsteps — came as a surprise after she'd twice been told to anticipate a release only to be disappointed.

The release followed an agreement with Chinese authorities to drop any charges against Guthrie Mclean, according to Montana U.S. Sen. Steve Daines.

Jennifer McLean told The AP the taxi driver had been pushing her around and hurting her when her son intervened and pushed the taxi driver to the ground.

She said when police detained Guthrie five weeks later on charges of intentional injury, they demanded the equivalent of $7,400 in compensation and threatened to imprison her son for up to three years if they refused to pay, which they refused.



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