[size=14pt]Nigeria releases and deports detained US filmmaker
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US documentary filmmaker and journalist detained for spying in Nigeria's volatile oil-rich Niger Delta has been released, police and a Paris-based media watchdog said Wednesday.






"I can confirm that Andrew Berends has been released," a senior police officer in Rivers state told AFP, without giving details.

The Paris-based Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said it was "relieved" Berends had been released, but said he had been interrogated for 10 consecutive days by the police.

RSF said Berends had been arrested "just for doing his job and no other reason".

Berends was arrested in Port Harcourt with his Nigerian translator Samuel George as well as a businessman on August 31.

"The translator and the businessman have been temporarily released yesterday but are still scheduled to report back to the security services tomorrow," the RSF said.

In April, four US documentary makers and their Nigerian fixer were held for six days on similar charges and in September last year two German journalists and a US activist were detained for two weeks.

The Niger Delta is Nigeria's oil hub where armed militant groups -- demanding greater control of the region's oil wealth by locals -- regularly attack installations and kidnap local and expatriate workers.

The unrest has reduced Nigeria's oil output by a quarter, causing it to lose its position as Africa's biggest oil producer to Angola, according to the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).

The New York times in its story reported that Andrew Berends was deported by Nigeria on Tuesday.

“It’s a travesty, because I love Nigeria,” Mr. Berends was reported to have remarked before boarding a flight to Germany.


http://naijanet.com/news/source/2008/sep/11/1002.html