A University of Montana student has been released from a Chinese detention facility after being arrested for getting into an altercation with a cab driver over a fare, a U.S. senator said Sunday.
Chinese authorities released 25-year-old Guthrie McLean who was reunited with his mother before 2 a.m. local time Monday, Montana Republican Senator Steve Daines said in a statement.
Daines said his office received a statement from the student’s mother, Jennifer McLean, saying “prayers answered, Guthrie is home.”
“After days of working the phones with top Chinese and American officials to secure Guthrie’s freedom from a Chinese detention facility, he has been reunited with his mother,” the senator stated.
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The student, who was visiting his mother in China this summer, argued with a cab driver who refused to give his mother 30 yuan ($5) in change on June 10.
A U.S. Senator says Guthrie has been reunited with his mother.
(Jennifer McLean/AP)
A family friend told KPAX-TV that the taxi driver was roughing up Guthrie’s mother, which led to Guthrie throwing him on the ground.
Weeks later, police arrived at McLean’s home looking for Guthrie to arrest him. They also demanded he paid $7,400 in damages, the mother said.
The family failed to come up with the amount, and police arrested McLean on July 16 in the city of Zhengzhou.
Guthrie spent most of his life in China before traveling to Montana to study East Asian studies.
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