Myanmar to free Australian Sean Turnell and Briton Vicky Bowman amid prisoner release

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Almost 6,000 people will be released from prison in Myanmar, including the Australian academic Sean Turnell, Britain’s former ambassador Vicky Bowman, and Japanese film-maker Toru Kubota, junta-controlled media has said.

On Thursday Myanmar’s state-run MRTV said that the foreign nationals, as well as a Burmese-American citizen, had been released and deported in a so-called amnesty timed to coincide with Myanmar National Day.

At time of writing it was understood that Bowman had not yet been released and deported. The Guardian was unable to confirm whether other foreign nationals had yet been freed.

The military seized back power in a coup on 1 February 2021, and has arrested thousands of people, targeting anyone it suspects of opposing its rule, from nurses and teachers to social media stars and journalists.

Several foreign nationals have also been targeted, including Sean Turnell, who served as an adviser to Aung San Suu Kyi, and who was first detained on 6 February 2021, a few days after the military ousted Myanmar’s elected government. In September, Turnell was sentenced to three years in prison for violating Myanmar’s Official Secrets Act after a closed trial.

Vicky Bowman, who was the British ambassador in Myanmar from 2002 to 2006, and her husband, Htein Lin, a veteran democracy activist, were sentenced in September to one year in prison for violating immigration laws.

Kubota, who was arrested during a demonstration in Yangon in July, had been charged with sedition and violating a communications law. He had been sentenced to 10 years after being convicted of sedition, as well as breaching the immigration rules and an electronic communication law.

The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners said on Wednesday that the number of political prisoners who remained in detention in Myanmar had reached more than 13,000 – a record high. Among them were 1,648 serving sentences.

Wai Hnin, senior advocacy officer at Burma Campaign UK, said on Wednesday night that the international community was failing to press Myanmar over the huge numbers of people being held. Under the previous military dictatorship pre-2010 the average was just over 2,000, the group said.

“Despite the record number of political prisoners, they barely get mentioned by governments and world leaders,” said Wai Hnin, senior advocacy officer at Burma Campaign UK. “The fact that so many people have been jailed demonstrates the level of fear the Burmese military have of the people of Burma. The Burmese military are afraid for their survival and arrest anyone they see as a threat.”