Myanmar court closes case of 36 student protestors

Last March, Myanmar freed more than a dozen students from jail who were detained in a violent crackdown, in which riot police beat protesters with batons and arrested 127 people after a lengthy standoff in the town of Lepdatan in the Bagon region, around 120 kilometres (75 miles) north of the commercial capital, Yangon.

Students demanded some changes on the country's education law.

"As students, we are not demanding power; we are just demanding to change the education law," said one student last year in March.

Police were accused of instigating violence, although they rejected all accusations last year.

The United States and the European Union, which has backed Myanmar's move towards democracy after half a century of military rule, had condemned the violence by police.

Judge Kyaw Swar Nyein from Thayarwaddy District in the southern Bago division, told reporters, "As the plaintiffs requested to drop the cases against the student protesters, the court closes the cases."

"Now these 36 students are free from charges," local media quoted him saying at the court.