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Myanmar frees 249 political prisoners

YANGON: Myanmar’s military junta released nearly 250 political prisoners on Wednesday, including a close aide of detained democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi, her National League for Democracy (NLD) party said.

“So far, we can confirm 249 political prisoners have been released from prisons across the country,” NLD spokesman Han Tha Myint told Reuters.

Journalist Win Tin, the former Burma’s longest serving prisoner of conscience according to media rights group Reporters Without Borders, was among 118 freed from Yangon’s notorious Insein Prison, he said.

However, Win Tin’s family, which has had release hopes raised and then dashed in the past, said he had not yet returned home.

“An NLD member released from Insein Prison told us Win Tin was among those going to be released today. Together with some other prominent prisoners, he was kept waiting to meet the Home Minister,” Han Tha Myint said. Born in 1930, Win Tin served on the NLD central executive committee before being arrested in 1989 for harbouring a girl who had an illegal abortion, rights group Amnesty International says.

He then received a total prison sentence of 20 years for “giving seditious talks” and distributing anti-junta leaflets in jail, Amnesty says. Campaigners had been hoping for his release in late July due to time off for good behaviour.

The NLD said Sein Hla Oo, a journalist and film critic who was arrested in 1994 for giving “fabricated news” to foreign journalists and diplomats, was also among those released. reuters

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