The Solidarity Trade Union of Myanmar (STUM) announced that its founder Myo Myo Aye, and labor rights activists Thet Hnin Aung and Thet Htar Swe, were released from Yangon’s Insein Prison on Monday.
“Nine others who were detained with Myo Myo Aye, including her daughter, remain in detention,” the STUM shared on its official social media account.
A total of 10 STUM members, including Myo Myo Aye and her daughter Chu Chu Thwe, were arrested in July and charged on Aug. 8 under Section 5 of the Law Concerning Recidivism, which has a maximum sentence of three years in prison if convicted.
The 10 STUM members were also charged under Section 40 and 41 of the Organization Registration Law on Sept. 15, which has a maximum sentence of five years in prison if convicted. Myo Myo Aye was arrested at her home in Yangon’s Shwepyitha Township on July 25.
International human rights and labour union organizations, including Human Rights Watch and Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development (APWLD), called on the regime in Myanmar to release all jailed STUM members.
Amnesty International called for the release of Thet Hnin Aung, the Myanmar Industries Craft and Service Trade Union Federation leader, in April 2024.
Thet Hnin Aung was re-arrested by regime authorities on June 23, 2024 after his release from Insein Prison during a regime prisoner amnesty.
He served only two out of a seven-year sentence following his conviction under the Counter-Terrorim Law for being involved in the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM).
The CDM was founded by striking civil servants who refused to work after the military coup on Feb. 1, 2021, and is considered a “terrorist organization” by the regime in Naypyidaw, which seized power during the 2021 coup.
