Pro-democracy dissident freed for 17 hours

Win Htein, 64, who had been in prison since 1996, was among seven members of Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party released Tuesday in an amnesty granted to 9,002 prisoners around the country.

Party spokesman Nyan Win, citing Win Htein’s family, said he was arrested 17 hours after being released from Kathar prison in northern Myanmar.

The family said authorities did not give any reason for re-arresting him.

Family members had traveled to Mandalay, halfway to where he was imprisoned, to meet him, but he did not show up. Prison authorities later told the family that Win Htein had spent the night at a guest house in Kathar and was then taken back to the prison there, said Nyan Win.

“This is cruel and should not happen,” Nyan Win commented. “This is mental torture.”

Win Htein had been serving a 14-year sentence on charges of providing false information to the foreign press, according to the U.S. Campaign for Burma, which lobbies against aid to the military regime.

A former army officer, Win Htein joined Suu Kyi’s party when it was formed in 1988 and served as a personal assistant and senior adviser to Suu Kyi and her deputy Tin Oo.

According to the U.S. Campaign for Burma, Win Htein was arrested briefly in early 1989 and tortured, then arrested again in 1989 and held until 1995.

Myanmar holds about 2,000 political prisoners, according to the United Nations and Amnesty International. The most prominent is Nobel peace laureate Suu Kyi, who is under house arrest in Yangon and has been in detention for about 13 of the past 19 years.

Tuesday’s amnesty was granted to prisoners around the country who exhibited good “moral behavior,” the state-run Myanma Ahlin newspaper reported.

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