Reuters Reporters Released from Myanmar Jail after 500 Days

The Reuters journalists who were jailed in Myanmar after being convicted of breaking the country’s official secrets act walked free on Tuesday, after spending more than 500 days behind bars.

33-year-old Wa Lone and 29-year-old Kyaw Soe Oo were convicted in September last year, sentencing them to seven years in jail, in a case that has raised the credibility of Myanmar, which is now a democratic nation, thereby sparking widespread outcry from diplomats and human rights activists across the world.

Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo started working on an investigative story in December 2017, in which 10 Rohingya Muslim men and boys were killed by security forces and Buddhist civilians in western Myanmar’s Rakhine province during a major army crackdown, that began in August 2017.

According to an estimate by the United Nations, the military crackdown also forced 730,000 Rohingya Muslims to flee Bangladesh. Rakhine province on the Bay of Bengal was the home to most of the Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar.

The joint report by Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, for the first time brought the issue to the international stage, which featured the first-hand testimony from the perpetrators, witnesses, and families of the victims. This led to their arrest.

Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo were awarded the Pulitzer Prize for international reporting, while still in jail. Reuters stood by the reporters although their time in jail claiming they did not commit any crime and had called for their release.

After their release from the Insein Prison, located on the outskirts of Myanmar’s commercial capital of Yangon, Wa Lone said he was grateful for the international efforts to secure their freedom. “I’m really happy and excited to see my family and my colleagues. I can’t wait to go to my newsroom”.

In April this year, Myanmar’s Supreme Court has rejected the final appeal of the Journalists to set them free citing evidence of a police set-up and lack of proof of the crime. The wives of the reporters too wrote a letter to the government in April appealing for a pardon.

Lord Ara Darzi, a British surgeon and a member of an advisory group to the government of Myanmar, played an important role in the release of the journalists said, the release has come after ‘months of dialogue’ with the government of Myanmar. He further said that the closed-door talks involved the Myanmar government, Reuters, the United Nations and representatives of other governments.

The President of Myanmar, Win Myint has also forgiven thousands of other prisoners in mass amnesties since last month. It is a custom in Myanmar, where the authorities free prisoners across the country during the traditional New Year celebrations, which began on April 17.