Family says US law professor took pills in effort to escape Rwandan jail

Family: Professor took pills to leave Rwandan jail

WASHINGTON — A U.S. law professor jailed in Rwanda told consular officials that he took an overdose of his prescription medicine so he would be sent from a squalid jail to a hospital.

The message from law professor Peter Erlinder of St. Paul, Minn., was conveyed from the consulate in Rwanda to his family, who said Thursday they understood his actions to be part of an effort to escape a jail cell where he feared for his safety and was staying with seven or eight other inmates.

Erlinder’s family was in Washington on Thursday to press for his release. They spoke with reporters on Thursday morning and were expected to meet with State Department officials later in the day. Erlinder was arrested on Friday in Rwanda on allegations he denied the 1994 Rwandan genocide.