Officials arrested Oakley resident Anthony Kelly in July and charged him with making threats to shoot and kill ICE officers. He is held in the Butler County jail. The Cincinnati office of the FBI posted this photo on its Facebook page in announcing charges against Kelly.

An University of Oklahoma professor who was detained by ICE while boarding an airplane to a Washington, D.C., academic conference has been released after two days in custody for what the agency described as "standard questioning."

Vahid Abedini is the Farzaneh Family Assistant Professor of Iranian Studies at the University of Oklahoma, where he researches international relations and comparative politics. Abedini was detained on Saturday, Nov. 22, and he posted to LinkedIn early Tuesday morning that he had been freed.

"I’m relieved to share that I was released from custody tonight," Abedini posted around 2 a.m. on Tuesday. "It was a deeply distressing experience, especially seeing those without the support I had. My sincere thanks to my friends and colleagues at the University of Oklahoma, the Middle East Studies Association, and the wider Iran studies and political science community for helping resolve this."

In an email, an unidentified ICE spokesperson confirmed Abedini's release.

"This Iranian national was detained for standard questioning," the statement said.

Joshua Landis, a professor of Middle East studies at OU, previously told The Oklahoman that Abedini is in the United States on an H-1B visa. This type of visa is reserved for individuals employed in specialty occupations like technology, education and health care.

In September, President Donald Trump issued a proclamation that requires employers seeking to bring new workers into the United States using an H-1B visa to pay $100,000 for each application. Workers would be denied entry to the United States unless the payment is made.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Oklahoma professor detained by ICE released after two days

Reporting by Dale Denwalt, The Oklahoman / Oklahoman

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