LAGOS (AFP) — Four US filmmakers arrested on Saturday in oil-rich southern Nigeria have been released from detention, their website said.
Sandy Cioffi, Tammi Sims, Cliff Worsham and Sean Porter were working on "Sweet Crude Movie", a documentary about petroleum in the Niger Delta, when they were arrested and taken to Abuja for further questioning.
A statement on the Sweet Crude Movie website datelined Seattle and dated April 16 said the four US nationals were released to American Embassy personnel in Abuja.
A Nigerian accompanying them, Joel Bisina of the conflict resolution non-governmental organisation Niger Delta Professionals for Development, based in the port town of Warri, was also released, it said.
In November 2007 two German documentary filmmakers were expelled from the country on alleged visa violations. An American aid worker resident in Nigeria was arrested with those filmmakers and was charged with spying. The charges were later dropped and she was released.
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