Burma’s longest serving political prisoner released
Posted on September 23, 2008
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U Win Tin has been released after over 19 years in detention as part of a general amnesty. He is Burma’s longest serving political prisoner.
The journalist was among 9,002 prisoners released today, in what the junta says was a gesture of “loving kindness and goodwill.
Win Tin was one of the founders of the National League for Democracy, led by Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi. Upon his release, he vowed to continue the struggle against the military junta. “I will keep fighting until the emergence of democracy in this country,” he told reporters.
He was arrested in July 1989 and sentenced to jail for giving shelter to a girl thought to have received an illegal abortion. While inside, he received additional punishment for agitating against the military government and distributing propaganda, bringing his total sentence to 20 years.
It was not clear how many other political prisoners were among those granted amnesty. According to the Democratic Voice of Burma, elected member of parliament U Aung Soe Myint was among 40 detainees released from Thayet prison today.
Amnesty International, estimates there are 2,000 political prisoners are being detained in Burma.
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