2 Reuters journalists freed from Myanmar prison, official says

Two Reuters journalists sentenced to seven years in a Myanmar prison have been freed.

The reporters were released after Myanmar President Win Myint issued a blanket pardon for 6,520 prisoners, according to the prison chief.

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Wa Lone, 32, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 28, were first arrested in December 2017 and sentenced last September after being accused of obtaining secret government documents -- a violation of Myanmar's Official Secrets Act.

The two journalists said they were framed by police over their reporting on violence against Rohingya Muslims.

Myanmar's Supreme Court on April 23 rejected the journalists' final appeal against their seven-year prison terms.

Myanmar's military launched a brutal counterinsurgency campaign in the western state of Rakhine in August 2017, sending more than 700,000 Rohingya fleeing across the border to Bangladesh and triggered criticism worldwide.

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  Reuters journalists Wa Lone, left, and Kyaw She Oo wave as they walk out from Insein Prison after being released in Yangon, Myanmar Tuesday, May 7, 2019. (AP Photo/Thein Zaw)

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  Reuters reporters Wa Lone, front centre, and Kyaw Soe Oo, rear centre, react as they are freed from Insein Prison in Yangon, Myanmar, Tuesday, May 7, 2019. (Ann Wang/Pool Photo via AP)