U.S. journalist jailed in Myanmar for nearly 6 months freed

BANGKOK — American jour- nalist Danny Fenster, who spent nearly six months in jail in military-ruled Myan- mar and was sentenced last week to 11 years of hard labor, was freed Monday and began his journey home.

Fenster was handed over to former U.S. diplomat Bill Richardson, who helped negotiate the release, and the two landed in Doha, Qatar.

“I’m feeling all right physically,” a bearded Fenster, in baggy drawstring pants and a knit hat, said on the tarmac in comments carried by the Al Jazeera network. “It’s just the same privations and things that come with any form of incarceration. You just go a little stir-crazy. The longer it drags on, the more worried you are that it’s just never going to end. So that was the biggest concern, just staying sane through that.”

While still jailed, Fenster told his lawyer that he believed he had COVID-19, though prison authorities denied that.

Fenster, the managing editor of online magazine Frontier Myanmar, was convicted “This is the day that you Friday of spreading false or hope will come when you inflammatory information, con- do this work,” Richardson, tacting illegal organizations a former governor of New and violating visa regulations. Mexico and past ambassador Days before his conviction, he to the United Nations, said learned he had been charged in a statement emailed by with additional violations of terhis office. “We are so graterorism and treason statutes that ful that Danny will finally be put him at risk of an even lon- able to reconnect with his ger sentence of life in prison. loved ones, who have been

He is one of more than 100 advocating for him all this journalists, media officials or time, against immense odds.” publishers who have been Fenster has been in detendetained since the military tion since he was arrested ousted the elected government at Yangon International Airof Nobel laureate Aung San port on May 24 as he was Suu Kyi in February, and his headed to the Detroit area was the harshest sentence yet. to see his family.

THE RICHARDSON CENTER VIA AP Former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Bill Richardson (right) poses with journalist Danny Fenster in Naypyitaw, Myanmar, Monday. Fenster, sentenced only days ago to 11 years of hard labor in military-ruled Myanmar, was freed and on his way home Monday.