KHARTOUM, Sudan -- American journalist Paul Salopek was released Saturday from a prison in the war-torn Darfur region where he was held for more than a month on espionage charges.

A judge in the North Darfur capital of el-Fasher released the Chicago Tribune journalist and his Chadian driver and interpreter after a 13-minute hearing.

Speaking at a news conference after arriving in Khartoum, Salopek, 44, thanked the Sudanese president and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson for their help in securing his release, and he said his "treatment was excellent" while in detention.

Richardson traveled to Sudan on Friday to meet with President Omar al-Bashir and persuaded him to release Salopek, as well as the driver and interpreter. He picked up Salopek and his colleagues in el-Fasher on Saturday and took them back to Khartoum.

"It was a humanitarian gesture," Richardson said Saturday during the news conference at a hotel.

Salopek's wife, Linda Lynch, and Chicago Tribune Editor Ann Marie Lipinski traveled with Richardson to Sudan.

Salopek was on assignment for National Geographic magazine when he was arrested last month and accused of passing information illegally, writing "false news" and entering the African country without a visa. His trial was set to begin Sunday.

"We are stopping the case and we are releasing you right now. And that is all," the judge said in English, according to the Tribune.

Richardson's office said the governor convinced the Sudanese president that Salopek is a constituent and a respected American journalist, not a spy.

"The Sudanese government has been cooperative, and we are all relieved to be on our way home," Richardson said in a statement Saturday from Khartoum. "Paul is safely with his wife, Linda, and we will get them back home to New Mexico."

Salopek was detained Aug. 6 along with two Chadian citizens, the interpreter Suleiman Abakar Moussa and his driver, Abdulraham Anu, the governor's office said.

The journalist, who won Pulitzer Prizes in 2001 and in 1998, was scheduled to return to New Mexico, where he has a home, on Sunday, according to the governor's office. His two assistants were to go to Chad, the Tribune said.

Richardson, a former congressman, U.N. ambassador and energy secretary during the Clinton administration, said his previous success helping to get prisoners released in Sudan helped him secure Salopek's freedom. In 1996, Richardson helped get three Red Cross workers, including an Albuquerque pilot, released from Marxist rebels in Sudan.

Associated Press writer Heather Clark in Albuquerque, N.M., contributed to this report.