American Kyaw Htay Oo among prisoners freed in amnesty by Myanmar's military rulers

Bangkok — Myanmar's military-controlled government announced Thursday it was releasing and deporting an American, an Australian academic, a Japanese filmmaker, and a former British diplomat as part of a broad prisoner amnesty marking the country's National Victory Day.   U.S. national Kyaw Htay Oo, Australian Sean Turnell, Japan's Toru Kubota, Briton Vicky Bowman and 11 local Myanmar celebrities were among a total of 5,774 prisoners who were being released, Myanmar's state-run MRTV reported.   The imprisonment of the foreign nationals had been a source of friction between Myanmar's leaders and their home governments, which had been lobbying for their release.

Kyaw Htay Oo, a naturalized American, returned to Myanmar, the country of his birth, in 2017, according to media reports. He was arrested in September 2021 on terrorism charges and had been in custody since then.

U.S Secretary of State Antony Blinken, speaking at a news conference on the sidelines of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Bangkok, welcomed the release of the prisoners, calling it "one bright spot in what is otherwise an incredibly dark time where we see things going from bad to worse in Burma, including terrible violence that's being done to innocent Burmese."