Myanmar releases political prisoners ahead of power reshuffle

Yangon: Myanmar began releasing the first of about 100 political prisoners today, government officials said that the days before democracy champion Aung San Suu Kyi’s party was to form a new government after an election victory in November.
The freeing of prisoners by the outgoing administration of President Thein Sein came after US Assistant Secretary of State Antony Blinken urged Myanmar to free all of its political prisoners during a visit on Monday.

“So far, 18 political prisoners were released from Insein Prison. They was to release a total of 21 people today,” a prison official at Yangon’s Insein prison told news agency.

Insein was one of Myanmar’s largest prisons. It was used for jailing political prisoners and was notorious for its poor conditions and bad treatment of inmates.