The Burmese government on Wednesday began releasing about 2,300 prisoners, including rights advocates who were detained for protesting against the military’s seizure of power in February and journalists who reported on the protests, officials said.
Buses took prisoners out of Yangon’s Insein Prison, where friends and families of detainees had waited since morning for the announced releases.
It is standard practice to take freed prisoners to the police stations where they were originally booked to complete the processing for their freedom.
Photo: AFP
Yangon Region Prison Department head Zaw Zaw said that more than 720 people were released from the prison, which for decades has been the main facility for political prisoners.
According to official announcements on state media, most if not all of the freed detainees faced charges related to the protests, including Section 505(A) of Myanmar’s penal code, which makes it a crime to spread comments that create public unrest or fear, or spread false news, and carries a penalty of up to three years in prison.
However, it appeared that an unknown number of people held on that charge might still be detained.
Complete information was not available and releases are expected to take place over several days.
State television reported on releases in Mandalay and Naypyidaw, the capital, in addition to Yangon, the country’s biggest city.
Local media in more remote areas reported releases as well, including in Myitkyina in Kachin State, in Shan State’s Lashio, and in Hakha in Chin State, a hotbed of opposition to military rule.
Tin Zar Oo, a lawyer who with her colleagues represents political detainees and journalists, said that about half of the 100 people whose cases they handle, including journalists arrested as much as four months ago, were released.
A statement from the military said that 2,296 prisoners were being released.
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