Danny Fenster, 37, was supposed to come back to the United States to surprise his parents last month. However, when he tried to board his flight on May 24 at the Yangon International Airport, located in the biggest city in Myanmar, he was stopped by security forces and taken into custody.
Fenster, an American citizen from Detroit, Michigan, was working in the country as the managing editor of the independent news outlet, Frontier Myanmar. Although it has been over a week since Fenster’s arrest, it remains unclear why he was detained at the airport. It is also unknown if he has been charged with a crime. CNN reported that Fenster, so far, has not had any contact with officials at the U.S. embassy in Yangon, lawyers, or even his parents.
Frontier Myanmar said they believe he is being detailed in Insein Prison, the infamous clock-shaped penitentiary located north of Yangon.
Ever since the military seized power in Myanmar on February 1, over 5,900 people have been detained by the security forces, and a majority of them continue to remain in detention, according to the advocacy group AAPP. Of those, it is estimated that at least 87 are journalists, of which 51 of them are still held in detention.
Fenster’s family said they are unsure of why he was detained in Myanmar, but his father told CNN that Fenster had expressed his concern for journalists previously.
Fenster is not the only U.S. citizen or foreign journalist to be locked up in Myanmar. Nathan Maung, a U.S. citizen and editor-in-chief of an online news site, was also detailed in the country on March 9.