Conway pastor walks free after 5 months in Russian jail

U.S. pastor Phillip Miles is met with flowers outside jail in Moscow, Tuesday, June 24, 2008. Russian authorities have released Phillip Miles, an American pastor who spent almost five months in jail for importing hunting-rifle bullets to Russia as a gift for a friend.

By: Associated Press | SCNow
Published: June 24, 2008

MOSCOW (AP) _ A South Carolina pastor is free after spending almost five months in a Russian jail for bringing hunting-rifle ammunition into the country.

The release of Phillip Miles, 58, on Tuesday came a day after the Moscow City Court reduced his three-year sentence for smuggling and ordered him set free.

RELATED

Pastor’s father speaks about son’s imprisonment in Russia. Details here.

Miles, a pastor at Christ Community Church in Conway, said he was well treated in custody.

"The Russian people are the most wonderful people in the world," he said after walking out of Detention Center No. 5 on the grimy edge of Moscow, where he was met by a friend, a U.S. Embassy representative and his lawyer, who was bearing red roses.

The pastor said he hoped to continue his humanitarian work in Russia, which includes bringing recovered drug addicts from the United States to help recovering addicts in Russia. "The Lord willing, I'll be back," he said.

Miles was convicted in April after security officers at a Moscow airport found a box of .300-caliber cartridges in his luggage. He apologized repeatedly, saying the ammunition was for a Russian friend, also a pastor, who had recently bought a new Winchester hunting rifle, and that he did not know that bringing ammunition into the country was illegal.

"Who would risk prison for a $25 box of bullets that you can buy right here in Moscow?" Miles said Tuesday.

His lawyer, Vladimir Ryakhovsky, called it an honest mistake but said the English-language customs signs at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport were unclear and confusing.

Russian officers confiscated the ammunition when Miles arrived on Jan. 29 but allowed him to continue on to Perm, a city about 750 miles east of Moscow. He was arrested when he returned on Feb. 3.

Miles has traveled to Russia more than 10 times with Evangel Fellowship International, a charity organization founded by his father in 1983, which has given more than $11 million in aid, primarily to Russian hospitals.

He plans to leave Russia once he has obtained an exit visa, expected in the coming days.