By HENRY C. JACKSON (AP) – 51 minutes ago
WASHINGTON — The State Department is calling on the government of Rwanda to release a jailed U.S. law professor on the grounds of compassion.
State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley told reporters on Thursday that the United States is pressing for the release of Peter Erlinder, of St. Paul, Minn., who was arrested on Friday after being accused of denying the central African country's 1994 genocide.
Erlinder was hospitalized on Wednesday after what Rwandan officials said was an apparent suicide attempt. However, the 62-year-old Erlinder told consular officials that he took an oversdose of his prescription medication so that he would be sent from a squalid jail to the hospital.
That message was conveyed from the consulate in Rwanda to his family, who said Thursday they understood his actions to be part of an effort to escape a jail cell where he feared for his safety and was staying with seven or eight other inmates.Associated Press writer Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report.
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