KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A former University of Central Missouri student from Saudi Arabia is free for the first time in nearly a year after first-degree murder charges against him were dropped.

Ziyad Abid was briefly taken into custody Friday by immigration officials then released on his own recognizance hours after Johnson County prosecutors dismissed all charges.

The 24-year-old Abid had been in jail since September, when detectives said his roommate, Reginald Singletary Jr., admitted killing a local bar owner in Warrensburg but said Abid had paid him to do it.

Singletary was a former bouncer at a bar owned by Blaine Whitworth. According to court documents, Singletary admitted fatally shooting Whitworth in the bar owner’s driveway. Singletary remains behind bars awaiting trial next February on charges of first degree murder and armed criminal action.

Abid’s attorneys have said Abid had nothing to do with the death.

Abid’s case gained national attention after the Saudi government posted $2 million bond in April, but a judge called him a flight risk and refused to release him.