Journalist returning to US after release in Myanmar

Journalist Danny Fenster is returning to the U.S. following his release in Myanmar, where he had been detained for months on a number of charges.

Fenster, the 37-year-old editor at the online magazine Frontier Myanmar, is expected to arrive in the U.S. on Tuesday, according to The Associated Press. He told reporters while passing through Doha, Qatar, that he was “happy to be on my way home.”

Fenster, who was sentenced to 11 years in prison in Myanmar last week, was freed from prison on Monday. Myanmar’s military government found him guilty of incitement for allegedly spreading false or inflammatory information, contacting illegal organizations and violating visa regulations, among other charges in May. He had been detained since then.

The specific allegations against him are not clearly known, but they are believed to be connected to his previous employment at an online news site that was ordered to shutter operations, according to the AP.

Fenster, with a beard and wearing baggy drawstring pants and a knit hat, said in Doha that he was “feeling all right physically.”

“It’s just the same privations and things that come with any form of incarceration. … The longer it drags on, the more worried you are that it’s just never going to end,” he added, according to the AP.

He noted that he was not starved or beaten while detained in prison.

Former U.S. diplomat Bill Richardson, who traveled to Myanmar earlier this month and helped facilitate Fenster’s release, said he is “so grateful” that Fenster will be able to reconnect with his loved ones and others who had been following his case.

“We are so grateful that Danny will finally be able to reconnect with his loved ones, who have been advocating for him all this time, against immense odds,” Richardson, who formerly served as governor of New Mexico and ambassador to the United Nations, said, according to the AP.