Burma junta frees, deports Montgomery Co. activist

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Source: The Washington Post

Burma's government on Thursday released a naturalized U.S. citizen who lives in Montgomery Village after six months of sometimes brutal captivity.

Nyi Nyi Aung is a democracy advocate who was born in Burma and had traveled there often under his legal name Kyaw Zaw Lwin, which allowed him to visit family and work with the underground democracy movement. But last summer Nyi Nyi Aung helped deliver a petition to senior United Nations officials with 680,000 signatures calling for the release of all political prisoners in Burma and bringing new attention to himself. He was seized in September at the airport when he tried to enter the country.

A month ago a court had sentenced Nyi Nyi Aung to five years of hard labor for forging his identity, possessing undeclared foreign currency and failing to renounce his Burmese citizenship. The government gave no explanation for his sudden release.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/18/AR2010031800429.html?nav=rss_politics