(Rangoon) The junta in power in Burma announced Thursday that it would release 700 prisoners, including a former British diplomat, a Japanese journalist and an Australian adviser to the ousted government of Aung San Suu Kyi.
Former British ambassador Vicky Bowman, Australian economic adviser Sean Turnell and Japanese journalist Toru Kubota “will be released to mark the national day”, a senior officer told AFP.
Vicky Bowman, in office between 2002 and 2006, and her husband, Burmese artist Htein Lin, a former political prisoner, both arrested in August for violating immigration laws, had been sentenced to one year in prison.
Like his wife, Htein Lin was released, AFP learned.
Mr Turnell, an Australian economics professor, was working as an adviser to Aung San Suu Kyi when he was arrested days after the military coup in February 2021.
He was sentenced in September to three years in prison for violating the Official Secrets Act.
Toru Kubota, 26, arrested in July on the sidelines of an anti-junta demonstration in Rangoon, was sentenced to ten years in prison.
The fourth foreigner is a Burmese holding a US passport, according to an official source.
Families gathered in front of Insein prison in Yangon, before the expected announcement of the release of prisoners, described an AFP journalist present on the spot.