Danny Fenster served as managing editor of the independent online magazine Frontier Myanmar.
US journalist Danny Fenster said he was healthy and happy when he was released from prison in Myanmar and flew to Qatar on Monday, following talks between former US diplomat Bill Richardson and the authorities. ruling military.
Fenster, 37, managing editor of the independent online magazine Frontier Myanmar, looks frail three days after being sentenced to 11 years in prison for incitement and violating immigration and illegal assembly laws. He has been in custody since May.
He told reporters on the tarmac at Hamad International Airport in Doha that he was feeling well and had not been beaten or starved while in captivity.
“I feel great and really happy on the way home. I’m so happy for all that Bill has done,” said Fenster, wearing a red beanie, wide-leg pants and a COVID mask. -19 white, said after flying. to Doha with Richardson by jet.
“You’re just rocking a little bit and the longer it goes on, the more you worry that it’s never going to end. That’s the biggest concern, keep it up.”
When asked if he had been mistreated, he said: “I was arrested and imprisoned for no reason, so I suppose so. But physically, I am healthy. I am not abandoned. hungry or beaten.”
Myanmar’s military-owned TV station Myawaddy said Fenster had been pardoned at the request of Richardson and two Japanese representatives “to maintain friendship between the countries and emphasize humanitarian grounds”.
Fenster is among dozens of media workers detained in Myanmar since the February 1 coup that led to public outrage over the military’s abrupt end to a decade of tentative progress toward the civilian population. owner. Myanmar’s military has accused many media outlets of incitement and spreading disinformation.
A source familiar with Richardson’s trip to pick up Fenster said it was arranged without the knowledge of the State Department or the US embassy in Yangon. Officials initially opposed Richardson’s visit to Myanmar earlier this month and urged him not to raise the case with Myanmar officials, the source said.
Prior to his release, some State Department officials were concerned that Richardson’s involvement might delay his release by leading the military to view Americans as an asset to try to extract the charges. concessions.
US State Department spokesman Ned Price on Monday said the former governor “did not act at the direction of the US government” in Myanmar but officials remained in regular contact with Richardson and his team.
US officials including Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs Roger Carstens also worked to free the journalist, Price said.
Crackdown
United Nations spokesman Farhan Haq said in New York that the United Nations hailed Fenster’s release as a “positive step” but called for at least 47 other detained journalists to be released immediately. ie.
Fenster said efforts to secure the release of other journalists would continue.
“We’re going to focus on them as much as we can and do everything we can to lobby on their behalf. We’re still trying really hard to get them out there,” he said.
According to human rights group the Association to Support Political Prisoners, 10,143 people have been arrested since the coup and 1,260 have been killed in violence in Myanmar, most of them during a security forces crackdown on protests and dissent.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken commended US officials as well as Richardson. Blinken said Washington will “continue to call for the release of others who remain unjustly detained.”
Fenster’s editor-in-chief, Thomas Kean, expressed relief that he had been released, and said he was one of many journalists “arrested without cause for doing their job” in Myanmar.
Fenster’s brother, Bryan, said the family was delighted.
“We can’t wait to hold him in our arms. We are incredibly grateful to everyone who helped secure his release,” he said.
Fenster is the first Western journalist to be sentenced to years in prison in Myanmar, where a coup against the government-elected Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi has plunged the country into chaos.
Richardson, former Governor of New Mexico, US Secretary of Energy and US Ambassador to the United Nations, visited Myanmar on a humanitarian basis https://reut.rs/3njmeix on November 2, offer support for COVID-19.
He is one of the few foreigners who have met military leader Min Aung Hlaing in Myanmar since the coup, and said his discussions with the government on humanitarian issues and vaccines have helped. make sure Fenster is released.
