US journalist Danny Fenster released from prison in Myanmar, three days after sentencing

US journalist Danny Fenster has been released from Yangon's Insein Prison on Monday, BBC reported. This comes three days after the 37-year-old managing editor of Frontier Myanmar was sentenced to 11 years in jail after he was found guilty on several charges.

Fenster had been in prison for charges inluding breach of immigration law, unlawful association, encouraging dissent against the military, sedition, and terrorism. Speaking to the BBC, junta spokesperson Major-Gen Zaw Min Tun said Fenster will now be allowed to leave the country.

Detained at the Yangon International Airport in May just before he was about to fly back to the US, Fenster was the only foreign journalist to be convicted of a serious crime since the army seized power in February, ousting the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi.

Fenster’s initial sentence was announced in a court inside Yangon’s Insein prison during a closed trial. Frontier Myanmar called the sentence imposed on him “one of the harshest under the Unlawful Associations Act and the Immigration Act”.

“We are relieved that Danny is finally out of prison – somewhere he never should have been in the first place. The Frontier team would like to thank all who worked to secure Danny’s release over the past five-and-a-half months,” Frontier Myanmar’s Editor-in-Chief Thomas Kean said on Twitter.

Kean said they recognise Danny was one among many journalists in Myanmar who have been unjustly arrested simply for doing their job since the February coup. “We call on the military regime to release all of the journalists who remain behind bars in Myanmar.”