March 27, 2002

BOSTON (AP) -- Sen. Olympia Snowe says a Clark University student who went to China to protest that government's ban on Falun Gong is headed home.

There was concern that Daniel Pomerleau, a practitioner of the spiritual movement, had disappeared after he arrived alone in China Monday morning.

The Boston Falun Info Center said the 22-year-old native of Vassalboro, Maine, was supposed to contact people in China and the U.S. -- but never did.

Snowe spokesman Dave Lackey says Pomerleau's mother contacted Snowe's office Wednesday morning because she was concerned her son was missing. Snowe's office then inquired about his whereabouts with the state department.

An official at the state department told Lackey that Pomerleau has been released and is returning to North America on a flight to Canada. Lackey says the college student is due back in Vancouver soon.

Lackey says airlines would not confirm if Pomerleau had already boarded a flight home, but Snowe's office was reassured by the state department that he was leaving China, or had already departed.

China banned the Falun Gong group in 1999. Authorities have detained thousands of followers, and Falun Gong supporters claim hundreds of Chinese followers have been killed.