(CNN) The Myanmar police captain who shocked a Yangon court by claiming he witnessed a plot by senior police to frame the two imprisoned Reuters journalists has been released from prison.

Captain Yan Moe Naing was sentenced to a year in prison for violating a law governing police actions after he publicly said Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo had been set up by police.

The two Reuters journalists are currently serving a seven year sentence for breaking the colonial era Official Secrets Act while investigating a massacre of Rohingya Muslims, a case that cast a pall over Myanmar's media community, and sparked increased international criticism of the country's de facto leader and Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.

Asked how he felt about the two journalists still behind bars as he left Yangon's Insein prison on Friday, Yan Moe Naing told reporters, "I feel sorry for them."

He also used the opportunity to call for a reform of the country's Police Disciplinary Act, under which he was prosecuted for whistleblowing.

Former Myanmar police officer Moe Yan Naing leaves Insein prison after serving his sentence in Yangon on February 1, 2019.

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