Montana student detained in China freed after a week

An American college student is free following a weeklong detention for allegedly injuring a taxi driver who was roughing up his mother during a fare dispute, in a case that drew objections over the student’s treatment from U.S. lawmakers.

Guthrie Mclean, a student at the University of Montana, was released from a detention center in Zhengzhou early Monday, according to his mother Jennifer Mclean, a teacher who lives in the central Chinese city.

“We are very, very very, very happy,” Jennifer Mclean wrote in an email to The Associated Press. She said the release — at 2 a.m. local time — came as a surprise after she twice previously had been told to anticipate a release only to be disappointed.

“They have not finished the process completely, but we are hopeful it will go smoothly from here on,” she said.