DIPLOMATIC EFFORT

American released from prison

08-17-2009 | AP

Panama Star BANGKOK. An American man imprisoned in Myanmar for sneaking into the home of detained democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi flew out of the country Sunday after a visiting US senator won his release.

John Yettaw of Falcon, Missouri, arrived in Bangkok on a US government plane with Sen. Jim Webb of Virginia, who secured his freedom Saturday with a plea to Myanmar's ruling military junta.

Webb's visit to Myanmar was the first by a member of the US Congress in more than a decade, and could presage a new approach by Washington toward the military government, which it has shunned.

Yettaw, 53, was convicted last week of breaking the terms of Suu Kyi's house arrest by swimming to her lakeside home in early May and staying for two days. He was also convicted of an immigration violation and of swimming in a restricted zone, and received a total of seven years in prison with hard labor. "I believe he was probably motivated by good intentions but he committed a very serious violation in this country," Webb said in Yangon.