US Journo Danny Fenster Released From Myanmar Prison With Help of Former Governor Bill Richardson
11:10 GMT 15.11.2021 (Updated: 13:26 GMT 06.08.2022)
© AFP 2023 / HANDOUT
Subscribe
Last week, Fenster, the managing editor for the Frontier Myanmar online magazine, was convicted of spreading false information, contacting illegal organisations and violating visa regulations and sentenced to 11 years of hard labour in Myanmar.
US journalist Danny Fenster was freed from Myanmar jail on Monday with the help of former US ambassador to the UN and former New Mexico governor Bill Richardson.
The journalist was handed over to Richardson in Myanmar and will return to the US via Qatar in the next few days, the former governor said in a statement emailed from his office and obtained by AP.
“This is the day that you hope will come when you do this work...We are so grateful that Danny will finally be able to reconnect with his loved ones, who have been advocating for him all this time, against immense odds,” Richardson said in his statement, according to the agency.
Richardson said he had negotiated Fenster’s release with Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, Myanmar's military ruler.
A former US ambassador to the UN and erstwhile governor of New Mexico, Richardson has repeatedly acted as a mediator in various diplomatic rows between the US and countries with which it has poor relations. He has been the broker in arranging the release of US citizens detained in North Korea, Venezuela and Myanmar.
Fenster, 37, is the managing editor of the Frontier Myanmar online magazine. He was detained at Yangon International Airport on 24 May while waiting to board a flight to the US. Last week, he was convicted of spreading false or inflammatory information, encouraging dissent against the military, contacting illegal organisations and violating visa regulations. His sentence has been the severest punishment for a journalist known to have been convicted since the military coup in Myanmar on 1 February when the army ousted the government of Aung San Suu Kyi and seized control of the nation.
Fenster, 37, is the managing editor of the Frontier Myanmar online magazine. He was detained at Yangon International Airport on 24 May while waiting to board a flight to the US. Last week, he was convicted of spreading false or inflammatory information, encouraging dissent against the military, contacting illegal organisations and violating visa regulations. His sentence has been the severest punishment for a journalist known to have been convicted since the military coup in Myanmar on 1 February when the army ousted the government of Aung San Suu Kyi and seized control of the nation.
