Fajarasia.id – Myanmar’s military junta has released from custody an Australian economist who was also an adviser to Myanmar’s former democratic government, local media reported Thursday.
Economist Sean Turnell was released last November after serving 21 months in prison.
Turnel previously served as an adviser to Myanmar’s ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi in a military coup.
The military government has revoked Turnel’s pardon and ordered him to appear in a Myanmar court, ABC News reported. According to ABC News, Turnell was accused of violating the terms of his pardon by providing false information about Myanmar in an interview.
The Australian government has expressed deep concern over recent developments and said it did not accept the reasons for Turnel’s detention.
“The Australian government has not accepted the grounds for Professor Turnell’s detention or prosecution against him and is disappointed that he is now being charged with unspecified crimes following his release from prison,” said the Australian Foreign Service. the ministry said.
Turnell was an economic adviser to Suu Kyi, who was overthrown in a coup in February 2021 after the military took power and subsequently detained Burmese figures.
The military government later sentenced the economist to three years in prison for violating secrecy laws. Last November, Myanmar’s military junta released 5,744 prisoners, including British Ambassador Vicky Bowman and her husband Koh Thein Lin, Japanese film producer Toru Kubota, and Turnell, who had returned to Australia. was included.
However, Suu Kyi and her party’s senior political leaders are not included in the list of those eligible for amnesty.
Suu Kyi’s government was overthrown in a military coup after her party, the National League for Democracy, won the November 2020 general election.
Widespread civil unrest followed the coup, as people criticized Suu Kyi’s overthrow and her military regime.
Despite warnings from the United Nations (UN) that the country had plunged into civil war, the military government used violence against the protests. Since then, junta soldiers have killed more than 1,500 people in crackdowns on dissidents, according to the Political Prisoners Assistance Association, a local watchdog group.****
