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CNN Sunday Morning

Student out of Prison, Returns Home from Russia

Aired August 05, 2001 - 09:14   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BRIAN NELSON, CNN ANCHOR: A Fulbright scholar who spent six months behind bars in Russia and who has just been released, may soon be on his way home to the United States. And here with more on that is CNN's Moscow bureau chief Jill Dougherty with more details on John Tobin.

Good afternoon, Jill.

JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN: Well, good afternoon, Brian.

After six months in a Russian prison, John Tobin is a bit thinner than he was, and he's also sporting a prison haircut. But the good news is that he is back in Moscow. His father is here and also is his U.S. congressman, who pushed for the release of John Tobin, a 24-year- old student. He arrived back here in Moscow by train early this morning toting boxes of books and other personal belongings and we understand he was able to call his family back in Connecticut.

John Tobin was a Fulbright scholar studying in the town of Voronezh when he was arrested on charges of obtaining and distributing marijuana. He was also accused by the FSB, the successor agency to the KGB, of being a spy in training. But there were never any charges on that particular part of it raised, and in the six months since he's been in prison, they said he was a model prisoner, but obviously there seemed to be a note here of trying to rid themselves of something that had become an irritant in the relations between the U.S. and Russia. Brian?

NELSON: All right, thank you, Jill. CNN's Jill Dougherty reporting to us from Moscow.

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