A Chicago Tribune reporter who had been jailed in Sudan on charges of espionage will be freed this weekend, it was revealed on Friday.

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson intervened in the case of Paul Salopek, who was arrested last month while in Darfur region preparing a freelance report for National Geographic.

Paul Salopek, in a photo provided by National Geographic, is set to be released by Sudanese authorities as early as Saturday.
(National Geographic/Associated Press)

Richardson met with Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir in Khartoum for about 20 minutes before the agreement was reached.

"I made the pitch, 'This is a humanitarian gesture, it's not politics, Paul Salopek is a respected journalist, he lives in New Mexico, I've got his wife with me, he's been detained 30 days, he's sick, he's not a spy as has been charged, please release him,' and the president agreed," Richardson told CBC.

Salopek, along with his interpreter and driver (both citizens of Chad), were charged with espionage, entering the country without a permit, passing information illegally and writing "false news."

This photo released by the State of New Mexico Governor's office shows the governor's Foreign Policy advisor Calvin Humphrey, left, the New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, second left, and Sudanese President Omar Bashir, right, during negotiations that lead to releasing a Pulitzer Prize-winning American journalist and two Chadians jailed on charges of espionage in Khartoum, Sudan, on Friday, Sept. 8, 2006.
(New Mexico Governor office/ Associated Press)

The spokesman said the Sudanese president was releasing Salopek on humanitarian grounds. The president also raised his concerns about misinformation being published out of Darfur.

The Sudanese government has become increasingly uncomfortable with Western reporting on the humanitarian crisis in Darfur.

The conflict between militants of the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) against the government and the Khartoum-backed Arab militia known as the Janjaweed has killed more than 200,000 people. The Janjaweed is said to be responsible for most of the rape, pillaging and murder in the region.

More than 200,000 have fled to neighbouring Chad. Aid officials estimate two million people have been displaced from their homes in three years of conflict.

Whatever the reasons, Salopek's wife, Linda Lynch, said she was ecstatic.

"I'm without words to truly give the feeling proper expression," Lynch said. "I can say, very deeply from my heart my immense gratitude to President Bashir for releasing Paul and his Chadean colleagues on humanitarian grounds."

Richardson, a former congressman, UN ambassador and energy secretary during the Clinton administration, secured the release in 1996 of three Red Cross workers, including an Albuquerque pilot, from Marxist rebels in Sudan.

Salopek, 44, has written about Nigeria, Congo and South Africa, and covered wars across Africa, Central America, the Balkans and the Middle East.

He has been with the Tribune since 1996. Salopek won his first Pulitzer for a series explaining the Human Genome Diversity Project. His second Pulitzer for International Reporting came in 2001 for his coverage of civil war in Congo.

Salopek is scheduled to be transported to Khartoum on Saturday, with a flight to the U.S. following shortly after.

With files from the Associated Press