The Australian Human Rights Institute at UNSW Sydney welcomes the release of Australian Professor Sean Turnell from prison in Myanmar, along with that of three other foreign nationals.
Australian Human Rights Institute Associate and UNSW Law & Justice Professor Melissa Crouch welcomed the news, but said it was long overdue.
“Sean Turnell’s release is significant and long-awaited. The Australian government must now increase, rather than decrease, its efforts to support the pro-democracy movement and their mission to end military rule," she said.
Since his arrest in February 2021, academics from across Australia set up a campaign urging the Australian government to do more to secure Professor Turnell’s release.
In 2021, an open letter signed by more than 500 academics, including those from UNSW Law & Justice, was sent to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
Background
Professor Sean Turnell was an advisor to former Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi and was arrested on 6 February 2021 following a coup where the Myanmar military seized power.
He was put on trial for alleged breaches of Myanmar’s Official Secrets Act and pleaded not guilty. He was sentenced to three years imprisonment in September 2022 in secret court proceedings, where lawyers were barred from speaking to media about the process. Australian officials were also blocked from attending court hearings.
Professor Turnell is an internationally-respected economist and an Honorary Professor of Economics at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia. He has had a distinguished career in government, banking and academia, and since the early 2000s, he has worked on Myanmar economic and banking issues. He worked closely with the National League for Democracy when it formed government from 2016-2021.
Since the 2021 military coup in Myanmar, the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners estimates that more than 2,400 people have been killed by the military, and more than 16,000 people have been arrested. There is widespread conflict and instability across the country, and in many areas the military has failed to gain control in the face of strong resistance.
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Drew Sheldrick
Australian Human Rights Institute
d.sheldrick@unsw.edu.au