After spending more than a year in prison, two assistant pastors arrested by the Myanmar army were released on 17 April under a government amnesty programme.
Dom Dawng Nawng Latt, 65, and La Jaw Gam Hseng, 35, were among more than 8,500 prisoners granted amnesty by newly elected President U Win Myint. Some 37 jailed political activists were also freed under the amnesty, but most of those freed were in prison on drug-related and other crimes.
In October 2017, the two pastors were sentenced under Burma’s Unlawful Association Act, for alleged connections with an ethnic armed group, the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO), and for allegedly spying for it, according to sources in court in Lashio town, Shan state.
