Myanmar releases hundreds of political prisoners from local prison

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Myanmar releases hundreds of political prisoners from local prison

Myanmar's military government has released hundreds of political prisoners from the local Insein prison, including a famous comedian and the party spokesman for removed leader Aung San Suu Kyi, according to the national media.

Minutes after a speech on Monday by Min Aung Hlaing, who took power in the Southeast Asian nation in a coup in February, state television announced that more than 5,600 people arrested or wanted over their role in anti-coup protests would be released in an amnesty on humanitarian grounds.

The release was described by some activists as a ploy by the ruling military to try to rebuild its international reputation after the Association of Southeast Asian Nations ASEAN took the rare step of excluding the chief from its summit

U.N. Special Rapporteur Tom Andrews welcomed the release via Twitter, but said it was outrageous that the prisoners had been detained in the first place.

The junta is not serving political prisoners in Myanmar because of a change of heart, but because of pressure, he said.

The junta has released prisoners several times since the coup.

ASEAN decided to invite a military representative to its Oct 26 - 28 summit, in an unprecedented snub to the non-political leaders behind the coup against Suu Kyi's elected government.

They came to me today and said that they would take me home, that is all. Monywa Aung Shin, the spokesperson for Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy Party, told local media Democratic Voice of Burma on Monday night on his way home from prison :

Monywa Aung Shin was charged on January 1 and had spent eight months in prison.

Photos and videos posted on social media showed detainees reunited with weeping family members.

Other images showed a succession of buses leaving the rear entrance of the jail, with passengers waving from windows and leaning at crowds gathering outside.

Myanmar's Prison Department spokesman and junta spokesman were not immediately available for comment.

More prisoners including parliamentarians and journalists were freed on Monday in other towns including Mandalay, Lashio, Meiktila and Myeik.

However, 9 out of 38 persons arrested from the Meiktila prison in central Burma were released again, according to Democratic Voice of Myanmar.

A Reuters spokesperson can't independently verify these terms of fact.

Myanmar has been in turmoil since the coup, which ended a decade of tentative democracy and economic reform.

Security forces have arrested more than 1,100 people, according to activists and the United Nations, and killed more than 9,000 people, including Suu Kyi, according to legal group Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, which documents killings and arrests.