The prison law in Myanmar is out of date and needs to be replaced, filmmaker Min Htin Ko Ko Gyi said upon his release from Insein prison today.
The prominent human rights defender was sentenced to one year in prison in August last year after criticising the military on Facebook.
He told journalists outside Insein prison on Friday that his treatment there was based on a 1894 law, and that he did not receive special status as a political prisoner.
“I was locked up with convicted drug users,” he said.
He was charged by the Tatmadaw under Section 505 (a) of the Criminal Code in April 2019 and sentenced at the end of August.
He wrote two film scripts while in prison, he told Myanmar Now. Min Htin Ko Ko Gyi is the founder of the Human Rights Human Dignity International Film Festival.
Although he has been suffering from liver cancer since before his arrest, a judge denied him bail during his trial.
Reporting by Khin Moh Moh Lwin, written by Mratt Kyaw Thu
