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YANGON: Military-ruled Myanmar on Thursday released a US rights activist jailed for fraud and forgery in a rare show of leniency from the junta ahead of elections this year.
Democracy advocate Kyaw Zaw Lwin was "thrilled" to be going home, his fiancee said, after he was given a three-year term in February for forging an identity card, failing to declare currency at customs and violating immigration law.
Supporters of the Myanmar-born US citizen, also known as Nyi Nyi Aung, said he had travelled to the country to visit his ailing mother, herself detained for political activities, when he was arrested on September 3.
The 40-year-old had been behind bars in Yangon's notorious Insein prison since, despite an appeal by more than 50 US lawmakers who wrote to Myanmar's leader, Senior General Than Shwe, for his release.
"I spoke with him and he was very strong, in high spirits and so thrilled to be free," his fiancee Wa Wa Kyaw, a nurse in the Washington area, told AFP.
But she said Kyaw Zaw Lwin, who was spending the night in Bangkok as he awaited a flight to the United States, felt pain in one of his legs after his detention.
"His leg isn't really good. The first thing we'll do is have a medical check-up to indicate if he needs some treatment or some physical therapy," she said.
Drake Weisert, a spokesman for the US embassy in Yangon, confirmed in an email to AFP that Kyaw Zaw Lwin had left Myanmar.
Officials from the southeast Asian nation, asking not to be named, earlier said authorities were deporting the US man on Thursday afternoon but gave no legal explanation.
His lawyer Nyan Win, who also represents detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, was initially unaware of his release after an appeal against the sentence was rejected, but later said he was glad of the news.
"His freedom will be there as he's an American citizen. His freedom cannot be here," he told AFP.
The United States has changed diplomatic tack in recent months, seeking greater engagement with the Myanmar regime after years of isolation, while maintaining sanctions.
But US officials have remained vocal in their criticism of the junta, only last week slamming plans for this year's polls as "devoid of credibility" as they prevent opposition leader Suu Kyi and other political detainees from taking part.
The United States had said Kyaw Zaw Lwin's conviction was "unjustified" and called for his release. Despite this, the prisoner's fiancee had said she felt betrayed by the US government and sought further efforts to secure his freedom.
The prisoner had been deprived of food, sleep, medical treatment and US consular access in his first two weeks of detention, his lawyers said.
He also staged a hunger strike, they said, to demand equal treatment for the more than 2,000 political prisoners the UN and rights groups say remain imprisoned.
In a damning report released on Monday, UN special envoy Tomas Quintana said the regime's violations of human rights could amount to crimes against humanity and warrant a UN inquiry, following his five-day visit to Myanmar last month.
Myanmar diplomat Wunna Maung Lwin "strongly condemned" the report as violating the country's sovereignty, in representations to the UN Human Rights Council.
The generals, who have ruled Myanmar since 1962 and refuse to recognise polls that Suu Kyi's party won by a landslide in 1990, have kept the Nobel Peace Laureate locked up for 14 of the past 20 years.
Her house arrest was extended for 18 months in August, sparking global outrage, after a bizarre incident in which another US national, John Yettaw, swam to her lakeside home.
Democrat US Senator Jim Webb secured the release of Yettaw, an eccentric military veteran, after the junta sentenced him to seven years' hard labour. - AFP/de
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