Aung Myint

Aung Myint and three other journalists were among more than 50 political prisoners released in Myanmar on January 3, 2005, with the hope that at least seven other writers known to PEN to be imprisoned in Myanmar would also be freed.

In addition to his work as a poet and a journalist, Aung Myint was serving as the head of the information department of the National League for Democracy (NLD) at the time of his arrest. He was detained with his assistant Kyaw Sein Oo on September 14, 2000 by members of Unit 14 of the Military Intelligence Service for distributing a press release to international press agencies and Western diplomats a few hours after NLD leader Aung San Suu Kyi was arrested by security forces as she was trying to leave Rangoon.

Aung was charged with violating the State Protection and Emergency Provision Acts and sentenced by a military court on December 20, 2000 to 21 years' imprisonment. Kyaw Sein Oo was tried separately under the Printers and Publishers Registration Act and sentenced to seven years in prison. Four other NLD members were tried by the military court and sentenced the same day to heavy prison terms. Aung received the prestigious International PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write Award in 2002.

(Courtesy American PEN Centre)