565 prisoners were transferred from Yangon's Insein Prison to Bago's Tharyarwaddy Prison on 9 May.

The 330 male and 235 female prisoners were transferred without their families being informed according to the lawyer who told Mizzima about the transfer.

"Among the transferred prisoners, there were some prisoners charged under the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances law to seven years in prison”, said the lawyer.

U Tun Kyi, a member of the Steering Committee of the Former Political Prisoners Society (FPPS), said that the authorities transfer prisoners, including political prisoners, in this way to cause hardships not just to the prisoners but their families too.

“Yes, they transferred some prisoners to Tharyarwaddy Prison. Political prisoners were also included in the transfer. They always do this, prisoners are treated like chickens in a cage”, said U Tun Kyi.

He added that around 700 political prisoners were transferred from Insein Prison to Tharyarwaddy Prison and Thayet Prison in Bago Region at the end of 2022 and the beginning of 2023, but the only transferred prisoners who had no contact with their families were the political prisoners.

At that time transferred political prisoners’ family members had also told Mizzima they had not been permitted to see their incarcerated family members.

On Buddha Day on 3 May 2023, the junta granted early releases for 2,153 prisoners across the country who had been convicted under Article 505 (a) of the Penal Code.

Since the coup, a total of 22,018 people have been arrested. Of those 4,232 have been released, 17,786 are currently still detained and of the detained, 5,807 have been sentenced. 154 people have been sentenced to death, but only 112 prisoners are on death row as the rest were sentenced in absentia, according to figures released by the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP