Political prisoner

The two Myanmar based Reuters journalists, Wa Lone, 33, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 29, charged under and jailed for breaking the country’s Official Secrets Act were released from prison after spending 500 days behind bars. The two journalists convicted in September 2018 and sentenced to seven years in jail for what human rights group denounced as a set-up. Phil Robertson,…

Burma Campaign UK, a human rights advocacy group has called for the release of U Gambira, a prominent political activist arrested in January, and “all the remaining political prisoners in Burma. U Gambira was arrested on January 19th this year while visiting Burma from his home in Thailand to obtain a new passport. U Gambira is in Obo prison while…

Human Rights Watch praised Burma’s newly elected government for quickly putting into action the release of the country’s political prisoners. In a statement to the media Human Rights Watch said that “the new Burmese government, led by the National League for Democracy (NLD), has taken a major step in releasing approximately 200 political prisoners and detainees, Human Rights Watch said…

A Burmese court on Friday released 69 political prisoners on Friday. The jailed student activists were freed following Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s promise on Thursday that a priority of her National League of Democracy government would be the release of activists and political prisoners. A large crowd outside the Tharrawaddy courthouse celebrated the release of the 69 students with…

In spite of recent reforms and the release of political prisoners, the numbers still in jail in Burma are significant, a human rights advocacy organisation based in the United Kingdom has said. Burma Campaign UK, said it had launched a campaign to highlight the issue of political imprisonment in Burma, referring to the case of Naw Ohn Hla, who was…

A report by the Asian Human Rights Commission warns of a rise in the number of politically motivated arrests. The AHRC welcomed the prospect of the newly elected NLD led civilian government, but pointed to Burma’s ongoing human rights violations. “Despite the historic election having taken place, peaceful protestors have continued to be subject to rights violations,” The AHRC said…

A human rights advocacy groups called for caution as Burma’s government released 52 political prisoners, stating that the situation is like a “revolving door” with hundreds still awaiting trial and fresh arrests. Burma’s government released 52 political prisoners this week. Yet human rights organisation Burma Campaign UK urged caution as political dissidents keep getting arrested. Burma Campaign UK referred to…

Human Rights organisations have expressed growing alarm over the Burma Government continuing to use draconian legislation to imprison political opponents. A report by Fortify Rights and the Harvard Law School International Human Rights Clinic found that police used unwarranted and excessive force in cracking down on civilians protesting against development projects in Letpadan on March 10. Police “brutally punched, kicked,…

The arbitrary arrest and imprisonment of land rights activists across Burma forms a new wave of prisoners of conscience, Human Rights Watch has said in a report damning of the government. The human rights organisation pointed to the arrest of a prominent land rights campaigner in Karen State as an example of a wider pattern of government persecution of its…

The number of political prisoners that have been released since 2014 is incredibly low given the number of overall prisoners released during that same period, an organisation representing political prisoners has said. The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma) noted that while 6,966 prisoners had been released since an amnesty in October 2014, only 13 of those were political prisoners.…