Yangon: Myanmar’s state TV says 628 people imprisoned for protesting last month’s coup have been released.
Witnesses outside Insein Prison in Yangon Wednesday saw busloads of mostly young people, looking happy with some flashing the three-finger gesture of defiance adopted by the protest movement.
The prisoners appear to be the hundreds of students detained in early March while demonstrating against the February 1 coup that ousted the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi.
Thein Zaw, a journalist for The Associated Press who was arrested last month while covering a protest against the coup in Myanmar, told his family he has been informed he is being released from detention Wednesday.
He has not yet left custody but was expected to be released soon. There was no official confirmation of his release.
He had been charged with violating a public order law that carries a penalty of up to three years’ imprisonment.
Thein Zaw was one of nine media workers taken into custody during the February 27 street protest in Yangon, the country’s largest city, and had been held without bail. About 40 journalists have been detained or charged since the February 1 coup, roughly half of whom remain behind bars.
AP