American journalist Danny Fenster, who was freed this week after nearly six months in Yangon’s Insein Prison, has been reunited with his family following his arrival in New York on Tuesday.
The 37-year-old’s release on Monday came just days after he was sentenced to 11 years in prison at a hearing held inside the prison. Fenster was handed over the same day to former US ambassador to the UN Bill Richardson, who helped negotiate his release.
Fenster had been found guilty of incitement, unlawful association, and immigration offences. He was also facing trial on charges of sedition and breaching Myanmar’s counterterrorism law.
At a press conference held in New York shortly after his arrival, Fenster told reporters that he was “not physically threatened” during his detention in Insein Prison.
Wearing a red knit hat that was reportedly a gift from another prisoner that he met during his time in the prison, Fenster said that he received almost no information about the outside world during his time in the notorious prison.
“I was able to get little hints of what was going on occasionally throughout the experience. If I was outside of the prison in court, maybe some police aide that could speak a little bit of English would flash a picture on his phone of my entire family wearing t-shirts with my face on it on CNN,” he said.
He told reporters that he did not know he was going to be released by the Myanmar junta until he was escorted to Naypyitaw early Monday.
“That morning, I was told to pack a bag with what I needed, shuffled into a car with shackled hands and legs, and told not to ask questions or say anything. We drove straight past the airport in Yangon. So I had no idea where we were going. We drove to Naypyitaw,” said Fenster.
He also said that he was not allowed to go back to the Yangon apartment that he shared with his wife and was not able to see or talk to her before his departure from Myanmar.
After several hours of waiting in Naypyitaw, a police officer informed him that he had been “offered” a pardon and would have to leave the country right away.
At the press conference, Richardson revealed that he had four meetings, including two one-on-one encounters, with junta leader Min Aung Hlaing during his two trips to Myanmar this month.
The last took place on Monday, when he met Fenster at the airport in Naypyitaw to take him home. Richardson added he was in Naypyitaw for eight hours that day.
The former New Mexico governor first met with Min Aung Hlaing and other senior officials during a humanitarian visit earlier this month. Until Monday, Richardson denied engaging in any negotiations with the regime leader for Fenster’s release.
“We went there and said, ‘There’s problems with the delivery of humanitarian assistance and vaccines’ to the government of Myanmar. ‘How can we fix that?’ And I think those discussions led to a little bit of understanding on the case of Danny,” he said on Tuesday.
He added that he finally persuaded Min Aung Hlaing to release Fenster after he told the senior general that doing so would be “a gift, a humanitarian gesture to the American people.”
“I believe that we have to engage our adversaries no matter how different our philosophies,” he said. “The way you deal with issues that divide nations is through humanitarian efforts, before political differences. I think that is fundamental.”
Richardson stressed that he was not acting on behalf of the US government, but acknowledged that the US State Department and the US embassy in Yangon both played a role in winning Fenster’s release.
Other countries, including Japan, Singapore, Thailand, China, Israel, Qatar, Sri Lanka, and India, were also cited at the press conference as having had some influence over the outcome.
According to Richardson, Myanmar officials did not place any conditions on Fenster’s release.
“Do you know what government officials asked me for in exchange for Danny? Nothing. They didn’t ask me for anything,” he said.
Richardson, who has a long history of engaging in hostage negotiations, said that he had faced criticism from activists who accused him of legitimizing Myanmar’s coup regime by meeting with its leader.
Myanmar’s military-run TV channel said on Monday after Fenster’s release that the American journalist was granted an amnesty on “humanitarian grounds” following negotiations with Hideo Watanabe, the chair of the Japan-Myanmar Association, and Yohei Sasakawa, Japan’s special envoy to Myanmar and chair of the Nippon Foundation, as well as with Richardson.
Fenster said he would continue to write about Myanmar to shed light on what’s happening in the country.
“This will be a short little celebration, but let’s keep focused on what the actual story is,” he said, referring to the thousands of citizens, including doctors and teachers, who are kept behind bars in Myanmar for opposing and resisting the military coup.
Danny Fenster spent a total of 176 days in prison.
