Myanmar authorities released American journalist Danny Fenster, sentenced last Friday to 11 years in prison for his work in the country, former US Governor Bill Richardson announced on Monday.
“Danny and Richardson’s team will be making their long journey home, via Qatar, in the next day and a half,” the Richardson Center for Global Engagement, led by the former diplomat and former governor of New Mexico, said in a statement. (USA.).
Frontier Myanmar, where Fenster worked, indicated that the journalist is already traveling to the United States.
Fenster, 37, was sentenced last Friday to 11 years in prison for various crimes, including violating a law that punishes anyone who tries to delegitimize the military junta, which seized power in a coup last February 1.
The reporter, who was arrested last May while trying to leave the country, has been released after an international campaign, including Richardson’s recent visit to the country, who met with the head of the military junta, Min Aung Hlaing.
“We are very grateful that Danny can see his loved ones again,” said the former governor, who thanked the governments of Qatar and Norway and of “many people” who have contributed to the liberation of the Fenster.
Frontier Myanmar managing editor Thomas Kean celebrated the reporter’s release and recalled that many other journalists have been unjustly detained in the country.
“We call on the military regime to release all journalists who remain in prison in Burma,” Kean said in a statement.
Fenster worked from mid-2019 to July 2020 at Burmese outlet Myanmar Now and has since joined the Frontier Myanmar staff.
After a dark judicial process, the journalist was sentenced to three years in prison for trying to delegitimize the military junta, another three for illegal association and five years for breaking the Immigration Law.
In addition to these charges, Fenster was also charged with sedition and terrorism..
The charges are based on the accusation that he was working for the English-language publication Myanmar Now, outlawed by the military junta after the coup, despite the journalist leaving the outlet in July 2020.
Three other foreign journalists – the American Nathan Maung, the Polish Robert Bociaga and the Japanese Yuki Kitazumi – were previously detained by the military junta, but they have already been deported to their respective countries.
According to data from the NGO Reporters Without Borders, since the coup, more than a hundred journalists have been detained by the forces of the military junta, while it is difficult to determine how many remain in prison after the amnesty decreed in October.
Source: EFE
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