• Vicky Bowman, Sean Turnell and Toru Kubota were among convicts pardoned by Myanmar’s military junta.
• Convicts were reportedly freed as part of an amnesty to mark national day.
• Pardons were reportedly given on humanitarian grounds and after condemnation of junta by Southeast Asian countries.

Along with more than 6,000 other detainees, the ruling military junta in Myanmar is apparently planning to release a former British ambassador, an economist from Australia, and a journalist from Japan.

To commemorate Myanmar’s national day, 5,774 male and 676 female convicts were set free, according to official media on Thursday. Among them were Vicky Bowman, Sean Turnell, and Toru Kubota.

According to media sources, pardons were given on “humanitarian grounds” and after condemnation of the junta at a recent gathering of Southeast Asian countries.

Since the military launched a coup in February 2021 by arresting civilian leaders, notably Aung San Suu Kyi, who is still imprisoned despite a number of accusations that many claim are politically motivated, Myanmar has been in political instability.

Since then, the junta has imprisoned hundreds of citizens for opposing military rule in addition to a small number of foreign nationals.

Between 2002 and 2006, Bowman was the top diplomat for the UK in Myanmar. She and her Burmese husband were detained in August and taken to Yangon’s notorious Insein Prison after being accused of violating immigration laws. According to Reuters, she and her husband, artist Htein Lin, would both be freed as part of the amnesty.

Turnell, an Australian who worked as an economic advisor to Suu Kyi’s cabinet, was arrested soon after the coup and given a three-year prison term in September for violating the nation’s Official State Secrets Act, a decision that Australia’s government strongly disagreed with.

In October, the Japanese documentary filmmaker Kubota received a 10-year prison term for a variety of offenses, including breaking immigration laws by filming protests while on a tourist visa.

Kubota would be released later in the day, according to the Japanese Embassy in Myanmar, which announced this on Thursday.

The military in Myanmar has previously released political prisoners. More than 5,600 persons detained for demonstrating against military authority were released by the military in October 2021.

The announcement follows the annual Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit, which took place in the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh and included discussions on the Myanmar conflict.

After failing to put the peace plan that was negotiated in April of last year into action, the junta has come under increasing criticism throughout the region.

Despite protests from international rights organizations, Myanmar is still a member of the ASEAN group. However, junta officials are not permitted to send political representatives to significant occasions.

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