Myanmar has freed an American man jailed after he swam to the house of the country's imprisoned democracy leader.
- John Yettaw flew to Bangkok on Sunday alongside Jim Webb, the US senator who secured his release during a visit to Myanmar.
- Myanmar officials earlier freed Yettaw from Insein prison in Yangon, where he was serving a seven-year sentence.
- He flew to Bangkok, the capital of neighbouring Thailand, accompanied by Webb, on a US military aircraft.
- Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar's imprisoned pro-democracy leader, continues to be held under house arrest, which was extended after Yettaw swam to her Yangon home in May.
- Webb, a US Democratic senator, secured Yettaw's release after talks with General Than Shew, Myanmar's military ruler.
- He also met Suu Kyi, becoming the first foreign official permitted to see her since she was sentenced to 18 more months of house arrest on Tuesday.
- "I am grateful to the Myanmar government," Webb was quoted as saying in a statement released by his office.
- "It is my hope that we can take advantage of these gestures as a way to begin laying a foundation of goodwill and confidence-building in the future."Yettaw, a diabetic and epileptic former military veteran, was arrested on May 6 after using a pair of home-made flippers to swim uninvited across a lake from the Nobel peace laureate's house, where he had spent two days.
- A devout Mormon, he said at his trial that he was on a "mission from God" to warn Suu Kyi that he had had a vision in which she was assassinated by terrorists.
- His lawyers earlier described him as a "fool".
- Source: Al Jazeera
Post a Comment