A bus carrying pardoned prisoners in front of Insein Prison in Yangon on November 17, 2022. STR/AFP
In a rare gesture that suggests the pressure exerted on them may not be in vain, the military junta in power in Burma released nearly 6,000 prisoners, including several foreign nationals, on Thursday 17 November. The latter were prominent prisoners, victims of the regime’s practice of hostage diplomacy, which it pardoned as a sign of “goodwill”.
Australian Sean Turnell, former economic advisor to ex-leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who was imprisoned shortly after the February 1, 2021 military coup, has been released after six hundred and fifty days in prison. He was sentenced in September to three years in prison for disclosing state secrets.
Britain’s Vicky Bowman, who was British Ambassador to Myanmar between 2002 and 2006 and was sentenced to a year in prison in September on charges of violating immigration laws, has been released; Her husband, Burmese contemporary artist Htein Lin, who was sentenced to the same sentence by the judges, is also being released from custody, with it still not being known whether he will be allowed to leave the country.
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Young Japanese press photographer Toru Kubota, who was arrested in July while covering an anti-government protest, has been released after a recent sentence to 10 years in prison. The fourth foreign prisoner is a Burmese-American botanist by trade, Kyaw Htay Oo. He was released after fourteen months in prison on terrorism charges.
“No significant change” in policy
The releases, which came as part of the amnesties granted on the national day, also affected some 5,774 prisoners, including 600 women, according to a military spokesman. The latter stated that three of Ms Suu Kyi’s former ministers were also pardoned.
The four detainees were immediately deported and put on a plane to Bangkok, where they arrived later in the day on Thursday. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who was in the Thai capital at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting bringing together a group of world leaders – including Chinese President Xi Jinping, his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron and US Vice President Kamala Harris, said they had spoken to Sean Turnell. “He’s fine,” he said. He even joked and apologized to me for not being able to vote in the general election in May [à l’issue desquelles M. Albanese est devenu premier ministre]. »
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