More than 500 prisoners, including about 40 political prisoners were released from five prisons in Bago Region on 1 August, the Waso Full Moon Day.

The prisoners were released from Pyay, Paungde, Taungoo, Tharyarwaddy and Bago prisons, according to locals.

None of the released political prisoners had much time left to serve. All were reaching the end of their sentences and none had more than six more months to serve.

101 prisoners were released from Pyay Prison. Of those five were political prisoners and none of them had more than six more months to serve in prison.

54 prisoners were released from Paungde Prison. Of those, five were political prisoners, none of whom had more than three and a half more months to serve, according to a Paungde resident.

They said: “The five political prisoners were all sentenced under Section 505 (a) of the penal code and freed three and a half months prior to their release dates. They are all from the Mekhaung Village, in Paungde Township.

81 prisoners were released from Taungoo Prison. Of those, ten were political prisoners sentenced under Section 505 (a).

20 political prisoners were released from Thayarawaddy Prison, according to the Thayarawaddy Revolutionary Community.

If any of the prisoners who have received early release are re-convicted for the same offence, they will have to serve the remainder of their commuted sentence on top of any fresh sentence, according to Section 401 Subsection (1) of the Criminal Procedure Code.

The early release of the prisoners in Bago Region was part of a national early release of 7,749 prisoners by the junta on 1 August to celebrate the Waso Full Moon, which marks the first day the Buddha gave a sermon and the beginning of Buddhist lent.