A Rangoon court on 19 February slashed eight and a half years off the 20-year prison term of detained blogger Nay Phone Latt.

Aye Aye Than, mother of Nay Phone Latt, told Mizzima, "The Yangon [Rangoon] Divisional Court today announced that eight and a half years have been reduced from my son's prison term."

The blogger, who was arrested in January 2008, was meted out a total of 20 and a half years due to various charges including violation of the Electronic Act and Video Act.

Nay Phone Latt is the fourth political prisoner whose sentence has been reduced since last week, just before the UN human rights official made a second visit to Burma.

Other political prisoners whose prison terms were reduced included popular comedian Zargarnar, Kay Thi Aung and Wai Myo Htoo.

In related developments, the Burmese junta announced it will release 6,313 prisoners from various prisons across the country on 21 February.

The announcement, however, did not mention whether political prisoners would be included among those released. Burma's ruling junta has persistently denied the presence of political prisoners in the country.

The announcement came a day after UN human rights expert Tomas Ojea Quintana concluded a six-day visit to Burma on 19 February.

A journalist in Rangoon told Mizzima, "It could be a move by the ruling junta to save face after Quintana visited the country."

But he added that it was unlikely that political prisoners would be included among those freed. "Most of them would probably be criminals," he added.

Sadly, despite the announcement both on television and radio, people remain unaware of the news as they could not tune in to their TV sets due to electricity failure.