Myanmar: Jailed journalists - Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo - released from prison, say reports

Kuala Lumpur, May 07: The two reporters, Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, who were senenced to seven years jail in Myanmar for allegedly violating a state secrets law while reporting on the Rohingya crisis, have reportedly been freed.

They were arrested in December 2017 and sentenced in September to seven years in prison under the colonial-era Official Secrets Act.

Two Reuters journalists jailed in Myanmar walked free from a prison on the outskirts of Yangon on Tuesday after spending more than 500 days behind bars, a Reuters report said while quoting a witness.

A Myanmar Court had on September 3, 2018, sentenced two Reuters journalists to seven years jail.

The report published in Reuters today also states that it is customary in Myanmar for authorities to free prisoners across the country around the time of the traditional New Year, which began on April 17.

In January this year, a Myanmar judge dismissed an appeal by two journalists, dashing slim hopes that the pair could be freed early. The Prosecutors had then said the two had classified information regarding security operations in Rakhine state, from where hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims fled during an army-led crackdown the United Nations has dubbed "ethnic cleansing".

Aung Naing, a judge at the Yangon Regional High Court, had in January said the original verdict was "not wrong according to the law" and was a "reasonable decision".