Myanmar pardons almost 7000 prisoners

Myanmar has pardoned and released 6,966 prisoners, including 210 foreigners, the government says.

The prisoners released included 210 foreigners, and 9 former military-intelligence officers who were…

“More than 150 Chinese will be released in the amnesty”, he said without giving further details.

The decision to jail the loggers sparked outraged editorials in Chinese state media, as well as a plea by Beijing to be “reasonable”.

The president said the amnesty, which relieved inmates from multiple prisoners across the country and marked the latest in a series since the reformist government took office in 2011, was intended to foster national reconciliation and the participation in the political process.

YANGON Myanmar freed 155 Chinese jailed for illegal logging in an amnesty for thousands of prisoners on Thursday, a move that could ease diplomatic tensions with influential giant neighbour China.

The Chinese loggers, who mainly did business with the rebels, had kept sending wood back to China despite timber exports having been banned by Myanmar’s government in 2014.

The loggers were arrested in January in a crackdown on Myanmar’s lucrative illegal logging and timber trade.

Another two offenders received 10-year sentences for the same offence, the lawyer said, adding that life terms were generally treated as 20 years in Myanmar’s judicial system.

The relationship saw many of Myanmar’s raw materials sucked across its northern border into China, spurring popular anger in the former junta-ruled country which is set to hold a general election in November. China’s embassy in Myanmar was not immediately available for comment.