Myanmar military junta releases top Australian aide to Aung San Suu Kyi and ex-British envoy upon release of 700 prisoners: ‘Remarkable’
- Military junta wants to release imprisoned foreigners on National Victory Day
- Sean Turnell, Australian adviser to imprisoned leader Aung San Suu Kyi, is released
- Former British ambassador Vicky Burrows is also among the 700 prisoners to be released
- Their imminent release has been described by analysts as ‘remarkable’
A top Australian aide to deposed Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi and the former British ambassador will be released today by their captors from the military junta.
Australian-born professor Sean Turnell, 58, was working as an economic adviser to Myanmar’s civic leader when he was detained shortly after the coup in February last year.
In September, he and Suu Kyi were convicted of violating official secrecy law and each received three years in prison by a closed junta court.
British envoy Vicky Bowman, 56, ambassador from 2002 to 2006, was detained with her husband in August for failing to state that she lived at an address other than that shown on her foreigner’s registration certificate.
Professor Sean Turnell (pictured right with his wife, Ha Vu lecturer at Deakin University) was working as an economic adviser to Myanmar’s civilian leader Suu Kyi when he was detained shortly after the coup last February
They were later sentenced to one year in prison. Her husband, prominent Myanmar artist Htein Lin, will also be released, the official said.
“The release of Professor Turnell is remarkable news after being held hostage by the regime, and his family and friends will be delighted,” independent analyst David Mathieson told AFP.
But he said the junta “shows no sign of reform and a mass amnesty does not absolve them of the atrocities committed since the coup.”
The pardon is part of the military junta’s release of 700 prisoners to celebrate Myanmar’s National Victory Day, a senior officer told AFP.
Japanese journalist Toru Kubota, 26, will also be released under the amnesty after he was detained in July near an anti-government rally in Yangon along with two Myanmar citizens and sentenced to 10 years in prison.
British envoy Vicky Bowman (pictured), ambassador from 2002 to 2006, was detained with her husband in August for failing to declare that she lived at a different address
The foreign nationals are expected to be released from prison today and then immediately deported from the country.
The Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has declined to comment on the reports, but sources in the Japanese embassy in Myanmar confirmed they were aware of Mr Kubota’s imminent release.
Kubota is the fifth foreign journalist to be detained in Myanmar, after US citizens Nathan Maung and Danny Fenster, Robert Bociaga of Poland and Yuki Kitazumi of Japan – all of whom were later released and deported.
According to the monitoring group Reporting ASEAN, 48 journalists have been detained across the country since March this year.
Families gathered outside Insein Prison in Yangon in anticipation of the expected announcement, an AFP reporter said.
The Southeast Asian country has been in turmoil since last year’s military coup toppled Aung San Suu Kyi (pictured) and a bloody crackdown on dissent that has sent thousands jailed
Three former ministers of Suu Kyi’s deposed government and imprisoned US-Myanmar national Kyaw Htay Oo would also be released, the junta official said.
The Southeast Asian country has been in turmoil since last year’s military coup and bloody crackdown on dissent that left thousands imprisoned.
The military’s crackdown on dissent since it ousted Suu Kyi’s government has claimed the lives of more than 2,300 civilians, according to a local monitoring group.
The junta blames anti-coup fighters for the deaths of nearly 3,900 civilians.