Myanmar: A US journalist imprisoned in Myanmar since May was released and deported on Monday, a day before he was due to face terror and sedition charges that could have jailed him for life.
The military has squeezed the press since taking power in a February coup, arresting dozens of journalists critical of its crackdown on dissent, which has killed more than 1,200 people according to a local monitoring group.
Danny Fenster had been working at local outlet Frontier Myanmar for around a year and was arrested as he headed home to see his family in May.
He was jailed for 11 years last week for incitement, unlawful association and breaching visa rules and had been due to appear in court on Tuesday to face sedition and terror charges — which could have seen him jailed for life.
But on Monday junta spokesman Zaw Min Tun told AFP he had been freed and would be deported from the country.
The 37-year-old’s release was secured following “face-to-face negotiations” between former top US diplomat Bill Richardson and junta chief Min Aung Hlaing, Richardson’s organisation said in a statement.
Fenster would travel home to the US “through Qatar, over the next day and a half,” the Richardson Center said, adding it was looking forward to re-uniting Danny with his parents and brother.
In a statement, the family expressed their relief at Fenster’s release.
“We are overjoyed that Danny has been released and is on his way home — we cannot wait to hold him in our arms,” the statement said, thanking Richardson for his help.
A photo posted by the Richardson Center showed Fenster, looking thin and gaunt, standing in shorts and flips flops in front of a small plane alongside the former New Mexico Governor on the tarmac in Myanmar’s capital Naypyidaw.
“It’s wonderful news for all of his friends and family,” his colleague at Frontier Myanmar Andrew Nachemson told AFP. “But of course he never should have spent six months in jail… and all the local journalists who remain imprisoned should also be released immediately.”
