Two Baptist pastors from Myanmar who were arrested for taking journalists to a church reportedly destroyed by military air strikes in 2016 have been released from prison, according to Baptist News.
The pastors in the Kachin Baptist Convention, Dumdaw Nawng Latt and his nephew Langjaw Gam Seng, were among more than 8,500 prisoners who were released by the newly elected president, Win Myint.
The move came as part of a national tradition of releasing prisoners on the first day of the Myanmar New Year.
Fifty-one of the 8,541 pardoned prisoners are foreigners and 36 are political prisoners, but not all of Myanmar's political prisoners received amnesty, according to Baptist News.
The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners reported that there are 18 political prisoners left in prison and 74 more facing trial for politically related charges while detained. Among them are two Reuters journalists arrested in December for allegedly possessing secret government documents with the intent to share the information with foreign media.
Baptist News reported that the two pastors were sentenced to prison last October under the country's Unlawful Associations Act, the law used most often to arrest individuals accused of association with ethnic armed groups opposing the government.
The men reportedly 'disappeared' on Christmas Eve 2016 after being summoned to an army base in the north-east of the country to assist with the release of some civilians detained there. Police did not confirm they were in custody until after a month.
According to Baptist News, the pastors' arrests appeared to be 'reprisal' for their role in helping journalists document air strikes by the country's air force that destroyed civilian structures in Mong Ko in the Northern Shan State bordering China, Laos and Thailand in November and December 2016.
