India court grants bail to US citizen accused of illegal entry
The American was arrested alongside six Ukrainians after allegedly entering India's Mizoram state without the required permits.
An Indian court granted bail to Matthew VanDyke, a US citizen, on Friday after six months in custody for allegedly entering northeastern India illegally, according to his lawyer Rohit Dandriyal. VanDyke was arrested in March along with six Ukrainians by India’s National Investigation Agency (NIA) for crossing into Myanmar without required permits.
Prosecutors did not charge VanDyke under anti-terror legislation, allowing his bail plea to proceed after 180 days of custody. The status of the six Ukrainians was not immediately clear. VanDyke, an American documentary filmmaker and founder of Sons of Liberty International, has a history of joining anti-Muammar Gaddafi rebels in Libya's 2011 uprising.
Recent years have seen thousands of refugees from Myanmar fleeing to India due to civil war, with India constructing a 1,643-kilometre fence along its porous border with Myanmar to address security concerns.
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