A Burmese court made a dramatic turnaround yesterday when it freed 18 foreign activists shortly after sentencing them to five years in jail with labour.
The 18 foreign activists are expected to be deported today, diplomats said. The court said they had 90 days to appeal but the home ministry has said they will be deported to Bangkok today, a western embassy source said. At least one activist is planning to appeal.
Local television stated: "Those activists really don't understand the real situation in Myanmar (Burma) and were used by overseas anti-government organisations."
Witnesses said the court, which had earlier imposed the sentence on the activists for distributing pro-democracy leaflets in Rangoon, received a letter from the Ministry of Home Affairs instructing it to release the prisoners to promote good relations between Burma and countries from which the activists came.
The families of some of the detainees held a press conference in Bangkok yesterday to demand their immediate release.
A US Congressman, Mr Chris Smith, a Republican from New Jersey, who arrived in the Thai capital on Thursday on a mission to release the US detainees, attended the briefing and said he hoped to travel to Burma soon.
"The sentences are suspended," one witness quoted a court statement as saying. It said the suspension was conditional on the activists not offending again.
The 18 activists - six Americans, three Thais, three Malaysians, three Indonesians, two Filipinos and an Australian - had pleaded guilty to the charges against them, which were made under the sweeping 1950 Emergency Act.
The activists were rounded up on Sunday in Rangoon as they handed out leaflets calling on the people of Burma to remember an uprising against the military 10 years ago. The pamphlets also called for human rights and democracy in Burma.
The detention of the activists had sparked an international campaign for their release. It also focused world attention on the campaign by the opposition leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, for democracy and human rights in the country.