A prominent Myanmar Christian leader is released from prison for a second time in 4 months

BANGKOK (AP) — A prominent Christian church leader and human rights advocate from Myanmar’s Kachin ethnic minority was released from prison earlier this week, a member of a Kachin peace organization said Wednesday.

The Rev. Hkalam Samson was first arrested in December 2022. In April last year he was handed a six-year prison term after being convicted of unlawful association, incitement and counter-terrorism. He was released in April of this year under a general amnesty but detained again just a few hours later.

Samson, a former head of the Kachin Baptist Convention, also chairs the Kachin National Consultative Assembly, an umbrella organization uniting religious and civil society groups with political organizations promoting Kachin rights, including autonomy from Myanmar’s central government.

The state, in northern Myanmar, has been the scene of intermittent warfare for decades between the army and well-organized and well-armed Kachin guerrillas.

Samson had been held for 16 months in the prison in Myitkyina township, the Kachin state capital, until his initial release in mid-April this year under an amnesty covering 3,300 prisoners across the country to mark the traditional Thingyan New Year holiday.

However, just hours after his release, he was taken into custody again.

Two days after Samson was detained for the second time, Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun, the spokesperson of the ruling military council, said in an interview with the BBC’s Burmese-Language service that he had not been rearrested but was taken in “for cooperation and discussion about the peace process.”

Lamai Gwanja, a leading member of the Kachin-based Peace-talk Creation Group, told The Associated Press on Wednesday that Samson was released from the prison