The Myanmar junta this morning released 5,774 prisoners including four foreigners from prison under an amnesty, according to junta-run state media and local news outlets.
The four foreign prisoners who were released today are Sean Turnell, an Australian economist and former adviser to detained leader Aung San Suu Kyi, former British ambassador Vicky Bowman, US citizen Kyaw Htay Oo and Japanese filmmaker Toru Kubota.
The artist Htein Lin, husband of Vicky Bowman, was also released.
It was learnt that the foreigners would be immediately deported.
Kyaw Tint Swe, former Minister for the Office of the State Counsellor of the ousted NLD-led government, Than Htay, a member of the Union Election Commission, and former Chief Minister of Tanintharyi Region Dr Lae Lae Maw, who was imprisoned by NLD-led government for corruption, were also released from prisons under the amnesty.
Sean Turnell was arrested by the junta, five days after the military coup in February 2021. He became the first foreign national arrested after the coup. Days after his arrest, he was charged under the Official Secrets Act, which carries a prison term of up to 14 years for documents found on his computer.
Former British envoy Vicky Bowman and her husband Htein Lin were given one-year prison sentences apiece in September this year under the immigration laws of Myanmar.
Japanese filmmaker Taroko Kubota was arrested in July this year at a protest site in Yangon while he was making a documentary film about the protest.
Burmese American citizen Kyaw Htay Oo, who worked as an expert in an agricultural vocational school operated by the NLD-led government, was given a seven-year prison sentence.
Two Burmese performers were also released today under the amnesty.
Speaking on the amnesty, a political analyst inside Myanmar, on the condition of anonymity, said: “The junta is under a lot of international pressure. That is why foreigners were released. I don’t think that their political and military stances have softened. They still brutally oppress those who oppose them.”
