YANGON, Myanmar, July 31 (UPI) -- Nearly 7,000 prisoners, including more than 200 foreign nationals and former military-intelligence officers, were pardoned and released from prison Thursday in what is being called one of the largest Myanmar amnesty actions in years.
The country's Ministry of Information said 6,966 prisoners were granted presidential amnesty "for the sake of stability and durable peace of the state, national reconciliation, on humanitarian grounds and to enable them to take part in the political process."