"Hey Dude, Where's My Car" actor Erik Aude is coming home.

He's been jailed in Pakistan on a drug charge since February, 2002. He served almost three years of a seven year sentence.

State Department officials said Monday that a Pakistani judge last week ordered a sentence of time already served and upheld a previously imposed fine of 50,000 rupees -- about $860.

Erik Aude had been hired to pick up leather samples from a manufacturer in Islamabad, Pakistan's capital city, his mother said. But after Aude picked up a suitcase containing the samples and got to the Islamabad airport, Pakistani customs officials found eight pounds of opium hidden in the sample suitcase's lining.

Sherry Aude said her son had no knowledge the drugs were there. She worked tirelessly to free her son, appealing to officials in Congress and holding rallies on her son's behalf and at the Pakistani consulate in Los Angeles.

For background, see our earlier post, Midnight Express Redux and Seamus McGraw's extensive article about Erik.