American journalist Danny Fenster was released from prison on Monday in Myanmar and has left the country, his employer and family said, following negotiations between former US diplomat Bill Richardson and the ruling military junta.
Fenster, 37, the managing editor of independent online magazine Frontier Myanmar, was sentenced to 11 years in prison on Friday for incitement and violations of laws on immigration and unlawful assembly, a ruling that drew international condemnation.
Fenster left Myanmar on Monday with Richardson on a flight headed to Qatar. The Richardson Centre posted a picture on social media of the two of them together about to board the jet.
“We are so grateful that Danny will finally be able to reconnect with his loved ones, who have been advocating for him all this time, against immense odds,” Richardson, who visited Myanmar earlier this month, said in a statement.
Fenster said after arriving in Doha that he was not starved or beaten while in captivity.
He was among dozens of media workers detained in Myanmar since a February 1 coup that led to an outpouring of public anger over the military's abrupt end to a decade of tentative steps towards democracy. The military has accused many media outlets of incitement and spreading false information.
US secretary of state Antony Blinken commended US officials as well as Richardson for facilitating Fenster’s release. “We are glad that Danny will soon be reunited with his family as we continue to call for the release of others who remain unjustly imprisoned,” he said in a statement.
It was not clear whether there were conditions attached to the release, who was arrested while trying to leave the country in May.
A spokesman for the ruling military council did not immediately respond to Reuters request. BBC Burmese service said the spokesman confirmed Fenster’s release but provided no further details.
Richardson, a former New Mexico governor, US energy secretary and US ambassador to the UN, made the surprise November 2 visit to Myanmar in a humanitarian capacity.
He is one of only a few foreigners to have met junta leader Min Aung Hlaing in Myanmar since he led the coup. The general is among several under sanctions from the US and western allies.
His organisation said Fenster’s release came after that private visit and “face-to-face negotiations” with Min Aung Hlaing.
Frontier’s editor-in-chief, Thomas Kean, said: “We are relieved that Danny is finally out of prison , somewhere he never should have been in the first place. But we also recognise Danny is one of many journalists in Myanmar who have been arrested simply for doing their job since the February coup.”
