An American and three other foreigners are among the thousands of political prisoners freed by Myanmar's military government.
DRISHYAM 2 👍(2022)
Thailand — As part of a sweeping prisoner amnesty to commemorate the nation's National Victory Day, Myanmar's military-run government said on Thursday that it was freeing and deporting an Australian scholar, a Japanese filmmaker, an ex-British diplomat, and an American.
British Vicky Bowman, Australian Sean Turnell, Japanese Toru Kubota, and American Kyaw Htay Oo
A total of 5,774 prisoners were being freed, according to Myanmar's state-run MRTV, along with 11 local celebrities.
The foreigners' detention had caused a rift between Myanmar's leaders and their respective home governments, which had pushed for their release.
According to the rights monitoring group Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, In Myanmar, 16,232 individuals have been held on political accusations since the military overthrew Aung San Suu Kyi's democratically elected administration in February of last year.
As of Wednesday, the AAPP claimed that 13,015 of those who had been detained were still there. The organisation also claims that security personnel have murdered at least 2,465 people over that time, but many believe the actual number to be far higher. Tim O'Connor of Amnesty International Australia applauded the decision to free Turnell and stated that, like many others, he should never have been detained or imprisoned.
He said, "Amnesty continues to demand the release of all those wrongfully imprisoned for peacefully exercising their human rights." "Thousands of people who have been imprisoned in Myanmar since the coup have committed no crimes." According to Hirokazu Matsuno, the top government spokesperson for Japan, Kubota is scheduled to board a flight out of Myanmar on Thursday night and could arrive in Japan as early as Friday. He said that according to authorities, the 26-year-old documentary filmmaker from Tokyo is in good condition.
Bowman has not yet been released from custody, according to the British embassy in Yangon. The American embassy in Yangon forwarded inquiries to Washington, and Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong tweeted that she welcomed reports that Turnell had been released. However, she would not comment further at this time.
Turnell, a 58-year-old associate professor of economics at Sydney's Macquarie University who had been advising Suu Kyi, was detained by security personnel at a hotel in Yangon only a few days after the military coup of the previous year. For breaking both the immigration law and the country's official secrets statute, he was given a three-year jail term in September. Suu Kyi and three of her former Cabinet colleagues were found guilty at a single trial that was conducted behind closed doors and during which their attorneys were forbidden by a court order from discussing the case publicly. Fellow Tim Harcourt, an economist from Australia, expressed his joy upon learning of Sean Turnell's release in an email.
He expressed gratitude to the Australian government, activists, and Turnell's friends and coworkers for their efforts in securing his release and expressed excitement for his return to Sydney.
It's a huge relief for his devoted wife Ha, his sister, father, and entire family, according to Harcourt. Sean had a heart for the people of Myanmar and wanted to do everything in his power to help them escape poverty and realise their full economic potential. According to him, he should never have been put behind bars for carrying out his professional duties as an economist working in development economics. Myanmar has been in chaos since the military takeover, which triggered widespread protests that the military government repressed with lethal force, sparking armed resistance that some U.N. Experts now classify the situation as civil war.
Kubota was detained by plainclothes police in Yangon on July 30 after photographing and filming a brief flash demonstration against the military. Last month, he was found guilty of incitement and other counts by the prison court and sentenced to ten years in jail.
Since gaining control, the military has stepped up its crackdown on protest coverage, raided media outlets, imprisoned hundreds of journalists, and cancelled the licences of at least a dozen sites.
Some of the shuttered media organisations have continued to operate without a license, and many Myanmar journalists are working clandestinely, shifting between safe houses, slipping away to distant border regions, or establishing bases in exile.
After the military took over, Kubota became the fifth foreign journalist to be detained in Myanmar. Local journalists Nathan Maung and Danny Fenster, both citizens of the United States, as well as the Polish and Japanese freelancers Robert Bociaga and Yuki Kitazumi were eventually deported before completing their prison terms.
In August, Bowman, 56, a former British ambassador to Myanmar who had been operating a business consultancy, and her husband, a citizen of Myanmar, were taken into custody in Yangon.
The jail court sentenced her to one year in prison in September for failing to register her address.
Media sources state that Kyaw Htay Oo, a naturalised American, visited his birthplace of Myanmar in 2017. He has been detained since his arrest in September 2021 on terrorism-related charges.
The country of Myanmar did not provide many details about the other detainees who were being released, but the majority of them would have been held on charges connected to the protests, such as violating Section 505(A) of its penal code, which makes it illegal to spread statements that cause public dissent or fear or false information and carries a sentence of up to three years in prison.
According to MRTV, former union minister for the office of the State Counselor Kyaw Tint Swe, former member of the Union Election Commission Than Htay, and former chief minister of Tanintharyi Region Lae Lae Maw, who had been imprisoned for corruption since 2020 and sentenced to 30 years in prison, were also among those freed.
This is dummy text. It is not meant to be read. Accordingly, it is difficult to figure out when to end it. But then, this is dummy text. It is not meant to be read. Period.
ConversionConversion EmoticonEmoticon