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Jailed British activist won't appea



Jailed British activist won't appeal 17-year sentence in Myanmar 


AP Bangkok 20 October 1999.   Jailed British activist James Mawdsley will
not appeal 
the 17-year sentence he received for distributing pro-democracy pamphlets
in Myanmar, 
a British embassy official said Wednesday. 

''He's decided not to appeal his sentence and his parents have been
informed,'' an 
embassy spokesperson told The Associated Press on customary condition of
anonymity. 
''It's up to him.'' 

Mawdsley, 26, of Lancashire, who also holds an Australian passport, was
reported in 
good health and spirits. Embassy personnel are able to visit him once a
month, although 
his parents have yet to be granted access. 

Mawdsley was sentenced to 17 years' imprisonment for entering Myanmar, also
known 
as Burma, illegally and carrying antigovernment literature in the run-up to
fizzled dissident 
protests on Sept. 9. 

He had been deported twice before and was sentenced to five years in prison
last year. 
On the second occasion, he spent 99 days in solitary confinement before he
was released 
on condition that he not enter Myanmar again. Mawdsley later said he had
been tortured 
during his interrogation. 

Run by the military for 37 years, Myanmar strictly prohibits demonstrations
of political 
dissent  by citizens and foreigners. According to Amnesty International
there are more 
than 1,200 political prisoners in the country. 

Another jailed Briton, Rachel Goldwyn, 28, who received a seven-year
sentence two 
weeks after Mawdsley for singing pro-democracy songs in downtown Yangon,
has filed 
an appeal, the embassy spokesperson said. 

Goldwyn's parents, from Barnes in southwest London, have been in Myanmar
for about 
a month and are able to visit her every two days at Insein Prison in the
Myanmar capital, 
where she is in solitary confinement. 

The spokesperson said it was not clear how long the appeals process would
take. 
Goldwyn was in good health and had regular access to a doctor, the
spokesperson said. 
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