MYANMAR: 82-Year-Old Protester Says He Was Freed Due To Old Age

YANGON (Reuters), October 20, 2007: Myanmar's military junta has freed an 82-year-old member of the opposition National League for Democracy who was sentenced to five years in jail for joining protests against the regime last month. "They said it was because of my old age," Sein Kyaw, among five members of Aung San Suu Kyi's party sentenced to long jail terms this week in Rakhine state, 250 miles northwest of Yangon, said after his release on Friday. The other four included 85-year-old Kyaw Khine who was jailed for seven and a half years. Relatives said he was not even in town during the protests against 45 years of military rule put down ruthlessly by the army. "I think U Kyaw Khine will also be freed soon. He is even older than me," Sein Kyaw, the NLD chairman in Gwa Township, told Reuters. © 2007 BURMA NEWS