Reuters journalists jailed in Myanmar released after more than 500 days

[Eugene]

Source: CNN

(CNN) — Two Reuters journalists jailed in Myanmar under the country's Official Secrets Act for reporting on a massacre of Rohingya civilians have been freed after more than 500 days.

Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo walked free Tuesday from Yangon's Insein jail, amid a gaggle of reporters, just weeks after their final appeal was quashed.

The pair, who received this year's Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting, have been locked up since December 2017, when they were charged under the country's colonial-era Official Secrets Act for allegedly disseminating secret information sensitive to national security.

The two men were released as part of an amnesty of 6,520 prisoners by the country's President Win Myint.

-snip-

By Euan McKirdy and James Griffiths, CNN
Updated 0628 GMT (1428 HKT) May 7, 2019


Read more: https://edition.cnn.com/2019/05/06/asia/reuters-journalists-myanmar-freed-intl/index.html

[Princess Turandot]

1. That's great news!!

With the final appeal being denied, I thought they had no further chance.

From Reuters on twitter:

Link to tweet

BBC: Wa Lone poses with wife Pan Ei Mon and daughter, along with Reuters reporter Kyaw

Wa Lone had a daughter born while he was in prison.

Preliminarily, it appears that a Brit doing advisory work for the government there may have been involved in their inclusion in an annual amnesty release:

The Reuters journalists were released at the prison to representatives of Reuters and to Lord Ara Darzi, a British surgeon and health care expert who has served as a member of an advisory group to Myanmar’s government on reforms in Rakhine State.
...
Darzi said discussions about the pardon for Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo had involved the Myanmar government, Reuters, the United Nations and representatives of other governments. He did not elaborate.
...
A Reuters spokesman said Darzi had made the company aware earlier this year of his efforts to secure the journalists’ release.

Darzi has been a member of an advisory commission that was formed in 2016 to see through the advice from a panel headed by former U.N. chief Kofi Annan on solving the long-running conflict in western Myanmar’s Rakhine State.

More from Reuters along with a photo slide-show after their release:

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-myanmar-journalists/reuters-reporters-jailed-in-myanmar-freed-from-prison-after-more-than-500-days-idUSK