The Irish student arrested by police following the G8 summit in Genoa earlier this month has been released.
Mr Joe Moffatt (31) from Drimnagh, a master's student in media studies at the Dublin Institute of Technology, had been charged with resisting arrest and possession of a weapon but it is not yet clear whether the charges have been dropped.
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His exact whereabouts has not been established, but a spokesman for the Irish embassy in Rome told
ireland.com
that Mr Moffat would be met by his lawyer and brought to Genoa Airport where a flight had been arranged departing at 6:20 p.m.
His flight is thought to be arriving at Dublin Airport at around 11 o’clock.
Mr Moffatt’s family heard the news by phone from an Irish embassy official in Rome at lunchtime today. His girlfriend, Ms Rena Nagle said she was "delirious" at the news and encouraged supporters to meet Mr Moffatt at the airport this evening.
"I’ve no problem with people going out, I’m nearly encouraging people to go out," she said.
However, she warned that her boyfriend may find it difficult to cope with the attention after his two-weeks in prison. "I don’t think you go through an experience like that without it having an effect on you," she added.
Mr Moffatt’s release was supported by the Irish Council for Civil Liberties, Labour Party spokesman for foreign affairs Mr Michael D Higgins, Socialist Democrat TD Mr Joe Higgins and Green Party MEP Ms Patricia MacKenna.
Meanwhile, a threat by 30,000 Italian anti-globalisation protesters to attend next month's Nato summit in Naples has led to calls by the local authorities for the event to be postponed.
A spokesman for the Naples-based, No-global network, warned of armed resistance to policing of their protest, according to The Guardiannewspaper.