US journalist Danny Fenster has been freed from prison in Myanmar just three days after he was sentenced to 11 years in jail for incitement and breaches of immigration and terrorism laws.
His release was confirmed on social media by his employer, Sonny Swe, the publisher of Frontier Myanmar.
"Great news. I heard @DannyFenster is out," Mr Swe wrote on Twitter.
Bill Richardson, former US ambassador to the UN, also announced the news in a statement, saying he had been handed over to him in Myanmar and would soon be on his way home via Qatar.
"This is the day that you hope will come when you do this work," Mr Richardson said.
Mr Richardson says he negotiated the journalist's release during a recent visit to Myanmar when he held face-to-face meetings with military leader Min Aung Hlaing.
Mr Fenster, 37, is managing editor of online magazine Frontier Myanmar and was arrested in May while trying to leave Myanmar, a country in chaos since the February 1 military coup.
He was the first Western journalist sentenced to prison in recent years in Myanmar.
The coup against the elected government led by Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi ended a decade of tentative steps towards democracy and triggered nationwide protests.
The military has arrested dozens of journalists among thousands detained after protests erupted nationwide.
The US State Department spokesman Ned Price last week condemned the sentence for Mr Fenster, saying it was "an unjust conviction of an innocent person."
Wires/ABC
