Posted July 3, 2008

Hollywood actor Wesley Snipes will be allowed to leave the United States to work on two movies while his lawyers appeal his tax convictions, reports the Associated Press.

Federal judge William Terrell Hodges approved the actor's motion Wednesday to travel to London and Bangkok, Thailand. Snipes will be in England about three days this month for post-production editing of "Gallowwalker," and in Thailand for eight weeks to film "Chasing the Dragon."

Snipes was convicted in February on three counts of willfully failing to file his income taxes. The 45-year-old star of the "Blade" trilogy has appealed the convictions, which were handed down by a jury, as well as his three-year prison sentence to the 11th Circuit Court in Atlanta.

Prosecutors asked Hodges to deny Snipes' request to travel abroad, saying he was a flight risk.