"We are gratified that British Ph.D. student Matthew Hedges is free to return home to his family and resume his studies at Durham University. Mr. Hedges was wrongly tried and convicted by a United Arab Emirates court and should not have been in this position in the first place.
Sadly, Mr. Hedges is just the latest scholar engaged in legitimate academic research to be unjustly targeted by a foreign government. We hope that this incident will refocus attention on the unlawful imprisonment of other students, including Princeton University graduate student Xiyue Wang, who was detained in Iran in August 2016 and sentenced to 10 years. These actions are morally wrong and create a chilling effect on academic research and scholarly exchange across the globe. Higher education institutions in the United States and throughout the world will continue to advocate strongly against policies that limit or discourage international movement by scholars or jeopardize their ability to conduct their research."