Burma's state media says the military government will release more than five thousand additional prisoners starting Thursday.
Earlier Thursday, journalists in Rangoon reported seeing inmates being freed from the country's largest jail, Insein prison, after a delay of several days. They apparently were the first to be let go since a few hundred were granted freedom last Friday.
The government announced last week that it would free some 4,000 prisoners it said were wrongly detained by the recently disbanded security apparatus, the National lntelligence Bureau. Of those freed last week, only a handful were said to be political dissidents.
Sources in the Burmese capital tell VOA one of those expected to be released is Win Tin, a former top aide to opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi. Win Tin has been jailed since 1989 and is 74 years old.
Aung San Suu Kyi remains under house arrest.
Information for this report is provided by Reuters and AFP.