Family members are seeking public support for the release of a Nevada soldier who is being held in the United Arab Emirates after he was allegedly caught with accessories related to firearms.
Spc. Nicholas Moody, 23, is an infantryman with the Nevada Army National Guard, but sought inactive status in August, according to a spokesman for the guard.
The Reno resident drills in Yerington with L Troop 1/221st Cavalry and joined the service in May 2005.
According to Moody's cousin, Gardnerville resident Marnie Schuster, he was returning home from Iraq where he was working as a security guard for a private security firm on Sept. 29, when he was arrested in the Abu Dhabi airport.
Schuster said that the items were pertinent to his job and not dangerous.
According to information sent out by Moody's mother, he had to stay overnight in Abu Dhabi to catch a connecting flight back to the U.S.
"My concern is that this young man did nothing wrong," Schuster said. "Nicholas has served tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. He has sacrificed for us and now desperately needs our support to get him out of this unfortunate situation."
Friends and relatives are concerned that the government will not help Moody, and they are asking that people write their representatives in Congress to place pressure on the government of the United Arab Emirates to release Moody.
Schuster said his court date is Nov. 29.
"Our soldiers with our all-volunteer military deserve our support, whether they are on active duty or not," she said. "Nicholas Moody is an American citizen being detained in a foreign country due to a set of unfortunate events that he could not have foreseen or controlled. We need to get him home."
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