After his Nov. 2 meeting with General Min Aung Hlaing, Mr. Richardson said he had not raised the issue of Mr. Fenster’s release but had sought to lay a foundation for future discussions. Madeleine Mahony, Mr. Richardson’s director of media relations, said Mr. Richardson and Mr. Fenster expected to arrive in the United States on Tuesday.
“They are on their way home and they have Danny with them,” she said.
A court convicted Mr. Fenster on charges of disseminating information that could be harmful to the military, unlawful association with opponents of the regime and violating the immigration law. It gave him the maximum possible sentence of 11 years.
Mr. Fenster is the managing editor of Frontier Myanmar magazine. The prosecution based its case on his previous employment with the online news outlet, Myanmar Now, which the regime has banned. Mr. Fenster left Myanmar Now in July 2020, six months before the coup, but the court found him guilty anyway.
The United States Embassy in Myanmar welcomed Mr. Fenster’s release.
“We are pleased that he will be able to reunite with his family soon,” the embassy said in a statement. “We thank our many partners who joined us in calling for his release.”
Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/15/world/asia/myanmar-fenster-release.html
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