PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN 6) — Oregon lawmakers awoke early Tuesday to offer support for the newly freed Stacey Addison, the Portland veterinarian held in East Timor since September, and expressed gratitude to the US state department for its recently pointed pressure on the foreign country’s government.
US Sen. Ron Wyden and Rep. Greg Walden each gave statements on Addison’s release Tuesday morning.
Thrilled that Stacey Addison is coming home from Timor-Leste to Oregon. Huge thanks to the @StateDept for its great work.
— Ron Wyden (@RonWyden) March 3, 2015
Walden, R-Bend, said he is “very pleased and relieved that Stacey Addison has been allowed to leave East Timor and is on her way back home.”
“This is excellent news for all of us who worked to help Stacey win her freedom, especially her mother Bernadette Kero of Klamath Falls, and her large circle of family, friends, and supporters,” he continued in the statement.
Walden was a vocal advocate for Addison’s release, meeting with the president at the State of the Union, and with Sec. of State John Kerry last week to discuss her situation.
Wyden, too, advocated for Addison. In a joint letter sent in November, Wyden and fellow Oregon Sen. Jeff Merkley urged Senate leadership to approve Karen Stanton as US ambassador to East Timor in hopes her appointment might lead to Addison’s return.
Merkley did his thanking Monday night, confirming the 41-year-old had been given her passport and had boarded a plane bound for the US. Merkley’s office said Addison should be back in Portland on Wednesday, six months to the day of her detainment.
Addison found herself in East Timor, an island country in Southeast Asia also known as Timor-Leste, as part of a whirlwind tour of the globe. In 2013, after nearly a decade working as a vet at SE Portland’s Banfield Animal Hospital, Addison traded in her Woodstock neighborhood home and most of her possessions for an international adventure.
PHOTOS: Portland’s Stacey Addison detained in East Timor
Addison was in East Timor — she contends she was there to renew her visa — when the taxi she was a passenger in was stopped by police. Another passenger’s package, picked up with Addison in the car, was full of drugs. A Facebook post by Addison, written after a five-day stint in an East Timor jail, details the arrest.
“…The parcel contained methamphetamine and everyone in the car was arrested. My bags were searched, my body was searched, all medications I am carrying were tested, and my urine was tested. Everything was negative but I was still arrested for drug trafficking. The man who picked up the package has testified he did not know me before we shared a ride to Dili, yet I am still not permitted to leave the country…”
Addison was released from jail on the condition she not leave the country until the investigation concluded. In late October, she was re-arrested during a court appearance and spent two months in jail. Released once again on Christmas, East Timor authorities still refused to hand over Addison’s passport as US and East Timor politicians wrestled over her fate.
