Military-ruled Myanmar was due yesterday to release a US rights activist jailed for fraud and forgery, an official said, in a rare show of leniency ahead of polls this year.
Democracy advocate Kyaw Zaw Lwin, also known as Nyi Nyi Aung, was sentenced to three years in jail last month after being convicted of forging an identity card, failing to declare currency at customs and violating immigration law.
“The authorities are handing him over to embassy officials today,” a Myanmar official said on condition of anonymity.
“He’s at the airport now. He will be deported this afternoon,” another official said.
The US embassy refused to make any immediate comment.
Supporters of the 40-year-old said he had traveled to the country to visit his ailing mother, herself detained for political activities, when he was arrested on Sept. 3.
He had remained behind bars in Yangon’s notorious Insein prison since then, despite an appeal by more than 50 US lawmakers who wrote to Myanmar’s top leader, Senior General Than Shwe, to press for his release.
The US has changed diplomatic tack on Myanmar in recent months, seeking greater engagement with the regime after years of isolation while maintaining sanctions.
However, US officials have remained critical of the junta, describing its plans for elections this year as “devoid of credibility” as they prevent opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and other political detainees taking part.
The 50 lawmakers made their appeal last month on health grounds after Kyaw Zaw Lwin’s lawyers said he had been deprived of food, sleep, medical treatment and US consular access in his first two weeks of detention.
His lawyers said the Myanmar-born US citizen had staged a hunger strike to demand equal treatment for the more than 2,000 political prisoners the UN says remain imprisoned.
UN special envoy Tomas Quintana released a report on Monday, following a five-day visit to Myanmar last month, saying the regime’s violations of human rights could amount to crimes against humanity and warrant a UN inquiry.
The generals, who have ruled Myanmar since 1962 and refuse to recognize polls that
Aung San Suu Kyi’s party won by a landslide in 1990, have kept her locked up for most of the past 20 years.
Her National League for Democracy party has not yet announced whether it will contest the polls, expected to be held towards the end of this year.
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