YANGON (Reuters) - Myanmar released 6,996 prisoners in an amnesty on Thursday that included 155 Chinese citizens jailed last week for illegal logging, government and prison sources said.
The release of the Chinese could help to placate Myanmar's influential neighbour China, which lodged a diplomatic protest and expressed "extreme" concern about the verdict against its citizens, 153 of whom were given life sentences.
They were among 210 foreigners included in the amnesty, prison and Home Ministry officials told Reuters, requesting anonymity because they were not authorised to speak to media.
(Reporting by Aung Hla Tun and Hnin Yadana Zaw; Writing by Martin Petty; Editing by Nick Macfie)
