Four political prisoners released from Pyay Prison in national amnesty

Four political prisoners released from Pyay Prison in national amnesty

Myitmakha News Agency

Pyay, January 22 – today saw the release of four political prisoners from Pyay prison, Bago Region, as part of a national amnesty, a directive of the president’s office.

The freed political prisoners are U Kyaw San, from an association of political prisoners, U Wanna, chairperson of Lu Baung Thit democratic party, U Maung Maung Toe, an activist and Ko Pal Pal from Generation Wave organization who protested against an election system of proportional representation. The first three were sentenced to four months in prison, while the other was given a sentence of a year and a half under article 505(b) for his participation in the movement of farmer issues.

One of the released political prisoners, Ko Pal Pal, commented, “I welcome the release of political prisoners but not all have yet been released. There’s still another three political prisoners left behind bars. And I’m also not aware the situation of students incarcerated in Tharyarwadi prison.”

A total of 101 political prisoners were released in the nation wide amnesty which was requested for by civil society and the general public. However, those released were required to sign a contract which stipulated that they would have to serve out the remainder of their sentence should commit crime again, according to subarticle 1 of article 401.

“We had to sign article 401 whether we like it or not. All political prisoners should be released without any discrimination. They’ve only released four of the seven [political prisoners] in Pyay prison. There shouldn’t be any political prisoners in democratic system.” said another one of the released political prisoners, U Kyaw San.

Although political prisoners have been released from Pyay prison, those of Ko Win Hlaing, Ko Kyaw Swe and Ko Myo Thu Htut still remain behind bars as they were not included in the amnesty.