Two journalists belonging to the Reuters news agency jailed in Myanmar has been finally released by the government on Tuesday, May 7, after spending more than 500 days in the prison.
A 33-year-old Wa Lone and Kyaw Sow Oo (29) were sentenced to seven years in jail after they were convicted of breaking the Official Secrets Act. Both the Reuters journalists had reported that during a military operation conducted in August 2017, the state security forces and Buddhist civilians executed 10 Muslim men and boys of Rohingya.
According to the reports, the army crackdown in 2017 had led the Rohingya Muslims (approximately 730,000) to flee the nation and find asylum in Bangladesh. The controversial report by the journalists had sparked an outcry from the world that raised questions on the democratic freedom in the country.
The release of the two journalists comes after the President of Myan Win Myint officially pardoned them along with thousand others as a part of their custom to release prisoners around the time of the traditional New Year, which began on April 17, reports Al Jazeera.
According to a statement from the Myanmar Presidents office, the nation will release 6,520 prisoners in an official pardon. However, the report by Wa Lone and Kyaw Sow Oo on the killings of Rohingya Muslims won a Pulitzer Prize for international reporting in May 2019.
(awaiting further details)
