An Oregon lawyer arrested on May 6 and held as a material witness in connection with the deadly Madrid bombings in March was suddenly released from detention on Thursday.
Brandon Mayfield, 37, was freed from a detention center in Portland, Oregon, after Spanish authorities said that fingerprints found on a plastic bag near the scene of the bombings that killed 191 people belonged to an Algerian national, media reports said.
PHOTO: AP
Mayfield had been held, without charge, as a material witness after Spanish and US officials said that a single print belonging to Mayfield was found on a plastic bag containing detonators like those used in the March 11 attack on four commuter trains in the Madrid area, which also injured 2,000 people.
It was not clear, however, whether the fingerprint information was linked to Mayfield's release and the Spanish authorities did not say whether they had found the Algerian's print in addition to Mayfield's.
Beth Anne Steele, a spokeswoman for the FBI in Portland, said she could not comment on the case or on Mayfield's release because it is "a pending grand jury matter."
Emerging from the courthouse at about 3pm Thursday, after two weeks in detention, Mayfield said in remarks televised by local news stations: "I just want to say, thank God and everybody that was praying for me."
"I want to thank my family and friends who were supporting me through this, what I would call a harrowing ordeal. I just want to say, God is great, there is no God but God," he said.
He spoke both in Arabic and English.
Mayfield, a former Army lieutenant and a Muslim convert who practised family and immigration law near Portland, was back at home in the Portland suburb of Aloha on Thursday afternoon with his wife and three children, ages 10, 12 and 15, said his wife, Mona Mayfield.
"It certainly is good," she said in a brief interview. "He's been released."
She said her husband could not discuss the case beyond his comments at the courthouse, citing a gag order on him and the lawyers involved in the case.
"It's under strict court order, so he cannot talk," she said.
"I'm just happy for him to be home," she added.
Mayfield's lawyer, Steven Wax, a federal public defender, said: "He is a fine young lawyer, an honorably discharged officer from the US Army.
"He has maintained from the outset that he had nothing to do with the horrible bombing in Spain and that he knew nothing about it," he said.
Federal law enforcement officials had said earlier that they arrested Mayfield before they had a chance to fully build their case against him, review his phone records and complete a covert surveillance operation, fearing leaks to the media about his suspected involvement in the bombings would prompt him to flee.
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