Shin Daewe still ‘not released’ in regime amnesty

Ko Oo, the husband of the jailed journalist Shin Daewe, told DVB that his wife hasn’t been released from Yangon’s Insein Prison as of 5pm Monday, dismissing the reports of her release in a regime amnesty on March 2.

“There are people waiting in front of Insein, and we are also waiting at home… It is now 5:00 PM Myanmar time, so the prison is closed,” he told DVB.

Friends and family members of another jailed journalist Hmu Yadanar Khat Moh Moh Tun told DVB that she was released from the Insein Prison.

“A partial release isn’t good enough – until all jailed journalists are released, Myanmar will remain one of the world’s top enemies of the press,” Shawn Crispin, the Committee to Protect Journalists’ (CPJ) senior Southeast Asia representative, told DVB.

The Political Prisoners Network Myanmar (PPNM) shared on social media that 324 political prisoners were among the 10,172 prisoners, including 7,337 convicted of violating the Counter-Terrorism Law along with 2,835 others, given amnesty on Myanmar’s Peasants’ Day on March 2.

Shin Daewe, 52, was sentenced to life imprisonment under the Counter-Terrorism Law on Jan. 11, 2024 after being arrested at Aung Mingalar Highway Bus Station in Yangon on Oct. 15, 2023.