Myanmar military pardons, re-arrests Kachin religious leader within hours

A unit of some 50 troops re-arrested former Kachin Baptist Convention (KBC) chair Dr Hkalam Samson at his home in Myitkyina, Kachin State, on Wednesday night after he was freed in a nationwide prison amnesty earlier that day. “The venerable pastor Dr Hkalam Samson was pardoned on April 17, 2024, but the military took him back into custody, claiming they had some questions for him, at around 11:30pm on the same day,” said a KBC statement released on Thursday. The ethnic Kachin religious and humanitarian organisation urged the public to pray for the wellbeing of the 65-year-old pastor and his family. At the time of reporting, it was not known where Dr Samson was being held. Myanmar Now’s calls to KBC’s spokesperson as well as to Dr Samson’s relatives went unanswered. The Kachin State-based news outlet Kachin News Group confirmed KBC’s statement of the pastor’s re-arrest, adding that the military reportedly claimed that he would be released the following day. Dr Samson was initially arrested at Mandalay’s Tada-U Airport before a trip to Bangkok, Thailand, for medical treatment on December 5, 2022. He was then taken to the military’s Northern Regional Command headquarters in Myitkyina, the Kachin State capital. In April of last year, he was convicted in a junta-controlled court of charges around terrorism, incitement, and unlawful association and sentenced to six years in prison. Dr Samson accused the Myanmar military of oppressing the country’s Christian minority during a meeting with the United States’ then- President Donald Trump in Washington DC in 2019. The military brought charges against him for the comments, but they were later dropped after he agreed to a meeting with army officials in Mandalay. The pastor also met with military commander Min Aung Hlaing in late 2020, less than two months before the general staged a coup. The amnesty in which Dr Samson was briefly included this week included some 3,303 prisoners nationwide, and coincided with the Myanmar new year and Thingyan water festival. A small number of those selected for release were political prisoners, and those among them had already served out most of their terms, largely for incitement. According to the junta, they pardoned one-sixth of prisoners nationwide, including those convicted of murder, rape, terrorism, corruption, arms and drug possession, and other crimes.

Myanmar military pardons, re-arrests Kachin religious leader within hours

Dr Hkalam Samson is released from prison in a mass amnesty before being taken from his home again by junta soldiers for interrogation later that night

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