US prisoner championed by Congress released in Bolivia

By Julian Pecquet - 12/18/12 03:46 PM ET

A New York businessman whose case was championed by Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.) has been released from prison in Bolivia, the Associated Press is reporting.

Jacob Ostreicher was granted house arrest after waiting 18 months in jail without charge in an alleged money laundering scheme. Ostreicher had maintained he was being set up by corrupt Bolivian officials, and recent events appear to confirm his story: 10 Bolivian officials – including two prosecutors and the top legal adviser in Bolivia's Interior Ministry – have been arrested and accused of belonging to a shakedown ring, the AP reports.

Ostreicher became a household name on Capitol Hill after Smith, the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs human rights panel, held a hearing on his case earlier his year. The congressman even visited Ostreicher in jail in Bolivia and accompanied him to a court hearing Smith said at the time was “beset by irregularities.”

Tuesday's news could help improve strained relations between the United States and the left-wing government of President Evo Morales. While the two countries signed a bilateral framework agreement to normalize relations last year after Morales expelled the U.S. ambassador and the DEA, Bolivia terminated a decade-old U.S.-Bolivia bilateral investment treaty in June.