Polish photojournalist Robert Bociaga has been released after 13 days in a police detention centre in Myanmar and is on his way home, Polish Press Agency (PAP) informed on Thursday.
According to PAP, the plane with the Polish journalist on board left Rangoon on Thursday and was on its way to Poland. Shortly before boarding the aircraft, Robert Bociaga said he had his equipment returned to him and that he felt good.
He was released from detention on Wednesday.
"We are happy to announce that thanks to the joint action of consular services of Poland and Germany, Polish journalist arrested in Myanmar is now free" - Polish foreign ministry wrote on Twitter and thanked the German diplomatic mission in Rangoon for helping the Polish citizen.
"I feel fine. I'm very happy I've been released, but also sad I have to leave Myanmar" - Bociaga told French agency AFP on Wednesday.
The 29-year-old said that when he had been arrested on March 11 in Taunggyi, the Burmese military had taken him for a local resident and beaten him with plastic truncheons. He added, however, that while in detention, he had been treated better than the locals.
"I was sat in a chair during questioning, while others were on their knees with fingers interlaced behind their heads" - he said. The interrogators also told him to focus on photographing landscapes and pagodas instead of the protests, as he had not had a journalistic visa.
Robert Bociaga worked in Myanmar as a freelancer, cooperating with German agency dpa and CNN.
Źródło: TVN24 News in English, PAP
Źródło zdjęcia głównego: TVN24