American journalist Danny Fenster, who was freed after nearly six months in jail in military-ruled Myanmar, has arrived back in the US for an emotional reunion with his family.
Mr Fenster, who had been sentenced last week to 11 years of hard labour, was handed over on Monday to former US diplomat Bill Richardson, who helped negotiate the release.
He is one of more than 100 journalists, media officials and publishers who have been detained since the military ousted the elected government of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi in February.
It’s been a “long time coming, a moment I had been imagining so intensely for so long”, the bearded and shaggy-haired Mr Fenster said after landing in New York. “Surpasses everything I had imagined.”
His family awaited his arrival in the lobby of an airport hotel, and rushed outside to greet him as they saw the car carrying him. His mother Rose embraced him in a long tight hug the moment he stepped out of the vehicle.
“It’s over. There’s nothing to be anxious about any more,” he said later in an interview. “Any bitter ill-will, regret, anger spilled out on the tarmac when I got on that plane.”
His wife Julianna, who is still in Myanmar, is set to be reunited with him in Detroit.
Late on Monday, as the 37-year-old travelled through Qatar, he told reporters he was physically OK and had not been starved or beaten while in custody. While jailed, he had told his lawyer that he believed he had Covid-19, although prison authorities denied it.
Mr Fenster, managing editor of online magazine Frontier Myanmar, was convicted on Friday of spreading false or inflammatory information, contacting illegal organisations and violating visa regulations.
Days before his conviction, he learned he had been charged with additional violations that put him at risk of a life sentence.
It “feels great to get Danny back home. It’s worth the effort, worth everything we did”, said Mr Richardson, a former governor of New Mexico and ambassador to the United Nations who helped negotiate the release.
Mr Fenster’s mother described the ordeal as a “nightmare” and the family expressed relief that it was over.
It “feels great, he’s safe, that’s all we want”, his father Buddy said.
Mr Fenster — in a knitted hat he said was a gift from another prisoner — joked that the first thing he will do is get a shave and a haircut.
He also said he hoped his plight would help focus world attention on the suffering of the people of Myanmar, where the army has responded brutally to peaceful protests that opposed the generals’ seizure of power.
Security forces have killed more than 1,200 civilians and arrested about 10,000 others, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners. The takeover and the ensuing crackdown have drawn condemnation and sanctions from the United States and others.
Mr Richardson is known for negotiating the freedom of Americans detained in countries with which Washington has poor relations, and when he visited Myanmar earlier this month it raised hopes that he might win Mr Fenster’s release.
But after that trip, he said his focus was on helping the south-east Asian country manage the Covid-19 pandemic and speeding up the delivery of vaccines there — and no mention of Mr Fenster was made in his foundation’s summary of the visit.
In an interview with the AP on Tuesday, Mr Richardson said US officials had told him not to bring up Mr Fester’s case during his meeting with military leaders, but he acknowledged he did at some point, when he sensed there was an opportunity to negotiate the release.
He said he made no promises in exchange for Mr Fenster’s freedom. “And they didn’t ask me for anything,” he added.
“I saw we had progress on the humanitarian issue, and I zeroed in on Danny and Aye Moe,” Mr Richardson said, referring to a former worker at his foundation who was also detained then released.
Mr Fenster had been in detention since he was arrested at Yangon International Airport on May 24.
The exact allegations against him were never clear, but much of the prosecution’s case appeared to hinge on proving that he was employed by another online news site that was ordered closed this year during the crackdown on the media that followed the military takeover. Mr Fenster left that job last year.
