MOSCOW — A Russian court on Monday reduced the three-year prison sentence of a South Carolina pastor convicted of smuggling rifle ammunition and ordered him set free.
The Moscow City Court reduced Phillip Miles' sentence to 10 months and ruled that he should be freed from custody without serving all of it. Miles, who has been in jail since Feb. 3, will likely be released Tuesday, his lawyer said, and is expected to leave Russia by next week.
Miles, who listened to the decision from jail via videolink, spread his arms wide and said "Hallelujah!" as the translator explained the ruling.
"We're glad that justice was done today," said Dominic Starr, Miles' American attorney and a member of his church.
The ordeal has been tough on Miles' wife and four children, who are "elated and relieved and anxiously awaiting his return," according to Starr. "They miss their dad," he told FOXNews.com. "They'll be happy to get him back."
A pastor at the Christ Community Church in Conway, S.C., Miles was convicted in April after security officers at a Moscow airport found a box of .300-caliber cartridges in his luggage.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,370381,00.html
