By Georgia FreeWednesday 13 Mar 2024Finding HopeBooksReading Time: 5 minutes
Guilty. Sentenced to seven years in prison.
Key points
- “They found me guilty of breaching the Official Secrets Act.” Sean was sentenced to seven years in prison.
- “There were moments during his imprisonment where he believes he felt God with him.”
- One morning, the prison guard appeared and told Sean that he was going home – and had ten minutes to pack up.
- Sean’s memoir An Unlikely Prisoner is available now.
As Sean Turnell was led away from the makeshift courtroom, back into the barbaric prison in the heart of Myanmar’s capital, his heart sank. For the first time in months, the ‘eternal optimist’ couldn’t see a way out.
On the Finding Hope podcast, Sean Turnell shares the second part of his story of surviving almost two years in a Myanmar prison for a crime he didn’t commit – and how, against all odds, he finally made his way home.
A recap…
Read and listen to Part One of Sean Turnell’s story here.
Australian economist Sean Turnell was an adviser to Myanmar’s former leader Aung San Suu Kyi. However, when the military overthrew Suu Kyi’s democratically elected government in 2021, Sean was arrested and illegally imprisoned.
He spent two months in solitary confinement, with no access to the outside world except for being interrogated. He was then moved to Insein Prison, awaiting formal trial for his charges. In 2022, the trial finally began – but Sean’s struggles were far from over.
‘A sham trial’
Sean’s trial was held once a week, on a Thursday – where he travelled back and forth from prison to a makeshift ‘courtroom’. From the start, the trial experienced major delays for a range of reasons – from sickness, COVID infections to electricity outages. It wasn’t unusual for Sean to miss several trial days in a row.
Sean was tried alongside Myanmar’s former leader Aung Sun Suu Kyi – in which the regime tried to prove that Sean was a foreign spy, and Suu Kyi was assisting him.
“It was effectively the message that they were trying to get across – that Myanmar was being taken over by sinister forces of international finance,” Sean told Finding Hope.
“If it wasn’t serious, it would be funny. [They were] a ‘tinpot dictatorship’ who had no idea what they were doing.”
“They found me guilty of breaching the Official Secrets Act,” Sean explained.
After many months, Sean’s sentence was finally handed down – guilty.
“They found me guilty of breaching the Official Secrets Act,” Sean explained.
However – astonishingly – the judge admitted that the charge was a sham.
“The prosecutor admitted that as a foreigner, the Secrets Act doesn’t apply to me.
“The judge even said it in his closing statement.”
Despite this, Sean’s verdict was upheld – and he was sentenced to seven years in prison.
‘Connection to God’
Back in prison, Sean struggled to remain positive and often felt agonisingly alone. Although Sean grew up Christian, he wouldn’t consider himself particularly religious.
Despite this, there were moments during his imprisonment where he believes he felt God with him.
“I was lying alone in my cell one night, during a particularly low point,” Sean shared.
“An immense feeling of connection came to me.
“There were moments during his imprisonment where he believes he felt God with him,” Sean said.
“I felt that my mind had wandered into a different place, and returned.
“I felt a strong connection to God.
Now that Sean is home, he is trying to explore what those feelings may mean for him, and his faith journey moving forward.
“It’s one of those things that I’m trying to explore a little bit, and try to find out what meaning there was from that,” Sean said.
“I had a very strong feeling that there was something much bigger going on beyond, and what [I was going through] was part of something bigger.”
Insein Prison, where Sean was held for months.
Announcement of release
Two months after Sean’s sentencing, there was nothing on the horizon that suggested that Sean would be released soon. On the 17th of November 2022, Sean and his wife Ha’s anniversary, they had a phone call where they were both resigned to the fact that Sean wouldn’t be coming home for Christmas.
However, the next morning, the prison guard appeared and told Sean that he was going home – and had ten minutes to pack up.
“He said it just like that, with no animation in his voice,” Sean explained.
One morning, the prison guard appeared and told Sean that he was going home – and had ten minutes to pack up.
Sean was understandably in shock – and began pacing his cell back and forth, unable to believe his reality.
“In the end, I walked away with almost nothing,” Sean laughed.
Sean’s release was part of a mass pardoning of hundreds of prisoners – and after sitting through a ceremony, Sean found himself on a flight from Bangkok to Melbourne – before flying on the Prime Minister’s jet home to Sydney.
“Within a 24 hour period, I went from being in a dingy, concrete cell with no hope to being on the Prime Minister’s private jet, with a meal put in front of me,” Sean said in disbelief.
Reunited at last
Finally, after 650 days imprisonment, Sean arrived back on Australian soil – and immediately found himself in the arms of his beloved wife, Ha. Although Sean was concerned about awkwardness between the two of them since it had been almost two years since they had seen each other, Sean’s concerns were unfounded.
Sean quickly resettled back into life in Sydney with his wife and daughter but admitted to finding some of the adjustments more difficult than he expected – including remembering how to use a smartphone.
“I remember thinking about a year into the imprisonment ‘how do apps work?’” Sean chuckled.
“I couldn’t remember.”
Following extensive medical check-ups and dental work, Sean was cleared of any serious physical ailments – and has adjusted back into freedom with remarkable ease and vigour.
“I never really had any problem adjusting back, and people often ask why,” Sean mused.
“My standard answer is that life is absolutely wonderful in Sydney, so it wasn’t too hard to adjust to.”
Listen to Part Two of Sean’s story on the Finding Hope podcast, and in the player above.
Sean’s memoir An Unlikely Prisoner is available now.
All images: Supplied