Australian academic Sean Turnell among four foreign prisoners reportedly released by Myanmar
After 650 days imprisoned in Myanmar, Australian academic Sean Turnell is in “remarkably good” spirits, revealing how a powerful Australian symbol kept him going in jail and even cracking a jokes.
Myanmar’s military-controlled government announced on Thursday it was releasing and deporting Turnell, as well as a Japanese filmmaker, an ex-British diplomat and an American as part of a broad prisoner amnesty to mark the country’s National Victory Day.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, obviously delighted with the former Aung San Suu Kyi adviser’s release, shared two messages from Turnell overnight.
“People have been wonderful,” the professor told the prime minister over the phone after his release.
Calling Turnell a “remarkable man”, Albanese said the former prisoner would get his food in buckets, except when care packages from the embassy came in a tote bag bearing the Australian crest.
“He would eat it and he would put the tote bags at where the bars were on the cell in which he was being detained so that both he could see and the guards who were detaining him could see the Australian crest, so that he could keep that optimism,” Albanese said.
“And the Australian crest, of course, with the kangaroo and emu that don’t go backwards.
“They don’t go backwards. It was very important for him.”
Albanese said Turnell was “clearly counting” all 650 days until his release and had lost a lot of weight but was in “remarkably good” spirits.
“He was in really, really good spirits,” the prime minister said.
“He was making jokes. He is from my electorate and apologised for not voting at the election. I assured him he wouldn’t be fined and that it was understandable.”
Turnell, Japan’s Toru Kubota, Briton Vicky Bowman, and American Kyaw Htay Oo, as well as 11 local Myanmar celebrities, were among a total of 5774 prisoners who were being released, Myanmar’s state-run MRTV reported.
The imprisonment of the foreign nationals had been a source of friction between Myanmar’s leaders and their home governments, which had been lobbying for their release.
According to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, a rights monitoring organisation, 16,232 people have been detained on political charges in Myanmar since the army ousted the democratically elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in February last year.
Of those arrested, 13,015 were still in detention as of Wednesday, the AAPP reported. Additionally, at least 2465 civilians have been killed by security forces in the same period, the group says, though the number is thought to be far higher.
Amnesty International Australia’s Tim O’Connor welcomed the decision to release Turnell, saying like many others, he should never have been arrested or jailed.
“Amnesty continues to call for the release of all those arbitrarily detained for peacefully exercising their human rights,” he said.
“Thousands of people jailed since the coup in Myanmar have done nothing wrong.”
Turnell, 58, an associate professor in economics at Sydney’s Macquarie University who had been serving as an adviser to Suu Kyi, was arrested by security forces at a hotel in Yangon just days after last year’s military takeover.
“He’s a remarkable man. And he was there doing his job as an economic policy adviser,” Albanese said of Turnell.
“He was doing his job, nothing more, nothing less. And he’s very good at his job.
“And he is a proud Australian. And today, I think we should all be proud of him.”
He was sentenced in September to three years in prison for violating the country’s official secrets law and immigration law. Suu Kyi and three of her former Cabinet members were convicted in the same trial, which was held in a closed court, with their lawyers barred by a gag order from taking about the proceedings.
Fellow Australian economist Tim Harcourt said in an email he was delighted to hear of his longtime friend Sean Turnell’s release.
He thanked the Australian government, activists and Turnell’s friends and colleagues who had lobbied for his release and said he was looking forward to him returning home to Sydney.
“It’s a great relief to his wonderful wife Ha, his sister and father and all the family,” Harcourt said.
“Sean’s heart was with the people of Myanmar to help lift them out of poverty and help Myanmar reach its economic potential. He should never have been imprisoned for doing his professional duty as an economist involved in development economics,” he said.
Japan’s Foreign Ministry confirmed they had been informed of Myanmar’s plans to release Kubota, but had no further details, other than that the 26-year-old Tokyo-based documentary filmmaker was reportedly in good health.
Britain’s embassy in Yangon said Bowman had not yet been released from prison. Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong ealier tweeted that she welcomed reports of Turnell being released, but would not comment further for the time being, and the US Embassy in Yangon referred queries to Washington.
Albanese thanked Wong for an “unrelenting” five months of work towards the academic’s release and hailed the “very important” work through ASEAN and with Japan and the UK.
Myanmar has been in turmoil since the takeover, which led to nationwide protests that the military government quashed with deadly force, triggering armed resistance that some UN experts now characterise as civil war.
Kubota was arrested on July 30 by plainclothes police in Yangon after taking images and videos of a small flash protest against the military. He was convicted last month by the prison court of incitement for participating in the protest and other charges and sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Since seizing power, the military has cracked down on the coverage of protests, raided media companies, detained dozens of journalists and revoked the licenses of at least a dozen outlets.
Most of those detained are being held on the incitement charge for allegedly causing fear, spreading false news, or agitating against a government employee.
Some of the closed media outlets have continued operating without a license and many Myanmar journalists are working underground, moving from one safe house to another, hiding in remote border regions, or basing themselves in exile.
Kubota was the fifth foreign journalist detained in Myanmar after the military seized power. US citizens Nathan Maung and Danny Fenster, who worked for local publications, and freelancers Robert Bociaga of Poland and Yuki Kitazumi of Japan were eventually deported before having to serve full prison sentences.
Bowman, 56, a former British ambassador to Myanmar who had been running a business consultancy, was arrested with her husband, a Myanmar national, in Yangon in August. She was given a one-year prison term in September by the prison count for failing to register her residence.
Kyaw Htay Oo, a naturalised American, returned to Myanmar, the country of his birth, in 2017, according to media reports. He was arrested in September 2021 on terrorism charges and has been in custody ever since.
Myanmar did not release many details of the other prisoners who were being freed, but almost all would have been being held on charges related to the protests, including Section 505(A) of Myanmar’s penal code, which makes it a crime to spread comments that create public unrest or fear or spread false news, and carries a penalty of up to three years in prison.
Among those released were also Kyaw Tint Swe, a former union minister for the office of the State Counsellor, Than Htay, a former member of the Union Election Commission and Lae Lae Maw, a former Chief Minister of Tanintharyi Region who had been jailed for 30 years for corruption since 2020 under Suu Kyi’s government, MRTV announced.
