Myanmar junta releases opposition politician

YANGON - Myanmar’s junta Thursday released opposition member Win Htein, 69, after detaining him for more than two years on no specific charges, opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) spokesman Nyan Win said.

It was his third spell in prison since 1988.

Win Htein, a close assistant to opposition leader and Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, was arrested in May 1996, and sentenced to 14 years in prison for disrupting national security.

He was released under an amnesty in September 2008, but only enjoyed 17 hours of freedom before he was imprisoned again on no specific charges.

Upon his release in 2008, Win Htein gave an interview to the Democratic Voice of Burma in which he stated “everyone has a right to predict in politics”, and called for a fair political system in Myanmar.

Myanmar has been under military rule since 1962. Aung San Suu Kyi, whose NLD party won the 1990 general election but was barred from power, has spent 14 of the past 20 years under house detention, as have many of her followers.

The NLD is now defunct for failing to meet the junta’s party registration requirements for a pending general election this year, which would have included Suu Kyi’s expulsion from the party.