The situation has taken a troublesome turn for the two American college students who were detained in Denmark after an incident involving an Uber driver. Their journey back to the United States has hit another obstacle while abroad.
Owen Ray, a 19-year-old student at Miami University in Ohio, and his companion found themselves in a predicament as Danish authorities have reportedly confiscated their passports after they were released from custody on Monday.
“We are greatly worried about the fact that Danish officials have taken his passport away and are preventing his return to the United States – a move that we believe to be uncommon in Danish legal proceedings,” expressed Ray’s parents, Andy Ray and Sara Buchen-Ray, in a message conveyed to Fox News Digital.
Owen Ray smiles in an undated photograph. Ray and his friend are charged with simple assault following a dispute with an Uber driver while the pair were traveling in Denmark. (Courtesy of the Ray Family)
Ray’s Denmark-based attorney did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
“We are aware of media reports of two U.S. citizens detained in Denmark,” the U.S. State Department said in a statement to Fox News Digital. “Staff at our embassy in Copenhagen are providing consular assistance. The Department has no higher priority than the safety and security of U.S. citizens abroad.”
Miami University in Ohio did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
“I just hope that Denmark and the legal authorities here are able to – and the U.S. government can help us and do what they can to help us be released by Easter, so I can be home with my family,” Ray told “Good Morning America.”
“I think the best case would be for the Danish police and the prosecutor to drop the case at this point, because we’re completely innocent, and for them to return us our passports and allow us to head back to the United States.”
