His older brother, Aung Kyaw Kyaw, told Voice of America’s Burmese service that Ashin Gambira a was picked up by members of Burma's military intelligence department late Tuesday at his sister's home in a Rangoon township.

He said Ashin Gambira was scheduled to meet with the British ambassador on Wednesday. Other sources who are close to Ashin Gambira said the authorities told him he would be released on Thursday.

Gambira was sentenced to 68 years in prison for leading pro-democracy protests in 2007. He was released in an amnesty on January 13.

The monk had returned to Rangoon on Tuesday from a trip to Kachin State and a visit to his family home in Meithila near Mandalay, a friend told the democracyforburma website.

He was staying at the house of his elder sister in Eastern Dagong Township in Rangoon when a car with four policemen arrived and took him away, the friend said.

On February 9, Ashin Gambira he was detained for several hours by security police for allegedly breaking into monasteries that had been closed and locked up after the 2007 mass demonstrations.

Observes note that the current government still seems to be especially sensitive to two areas of Burmese society: the sangha and the media. Ashin Gambira said after his release from prison that he is skeptical of the democratic reforms made by the newly elected government.

A biographical sketch on Wikipedia says: “U Gambira first became well known in August 2007, when high fuel and commodity prices in Yangon, Burma sparked a series of city-wide protests. The city's Buddhist monks took on a leadership role in these demonstrations, forming the All-Burma Monks' Alliance and lending the uprising its nickname of “the Saffron Revolution”, after the color of the monks' robes. U Gambira, a 29-year-old monk, became one of the new organization's leaders.”

“Following the protests, he went into hiding. His brother Aung Kyaw Kyaw was arrested on what the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners believes to be an attempt by the government to force U Gambira out of hiding. On 4 November, he published editorials in the Washington Post and The Guardian calling for the international community to continue sanctions against Burma's leadership, for Russia and China to cease supporting the military government on the United Nations Security Council, and for Burma's people to continue to peacefully protest against the military rulers. ”

“The regime's use of mass arrests, murder, torture and imprisonment has failed to extinguish our desire for the freedom that was stolen from us so many years ago. We have taken their best punch”, he wrote in the Post.

“The same day, he was arrested in Sagaing Region; his father was arrested as well and held for one month in Mandalay prison. Human Rights Watch reported that U Gambira was stripped of his robes and “badly tortured” following his arrest.”