Paulo Pinheiro, who suspended his latest visit to Burma after an antiquated bugging device was found in a prison room he was using for confidential interviews, insisted that all the prisoners must be released immediately.
"You cannot continue using the excuse that some prisoners are very dangerous," he said in Bangkok. "I can barely imagine that prisoners 75 years old, in terrible state of health, are a security threat. This is nonsense."
He said it was completely unjustifiable that a young man had been sentenced to 14 years for waving the flag of the opposition National League for Democracy.
The Brazilian professor, who is due to present his report on Burma to the UN human rights commission next month, said it was "unacceptable" that prisoners were being released only on a piecemeal basis.
But he commended the junta for giving the Red Cross greater access in some parts of the country and allowing Amnesty International to make a visit this year.
