Their crimes?

Rachel Goldwyn, 28, of London, tied herself to a lamppost in central Yangon and sang pro-democracy slogans.

James Mawdsley, 26, of Lancashire, was jailed for 17 years for entering the country illegally and carrying anti-government leaflets.

Rachel Goldwyn: Jailed for singing a song

Goldwyn was sentenced to seven years under Burma's Emergency Provisions Act, which has been used by the ruling military to stifle dissent.

Why did these two young people from middle-class homes risk their freedom for a small country more than 5,000 miles away?

It was the third time Mawdsley had been arrested in Burma, the third time he had entered the country without a visa.

At his trial, the judge asked why he entered the country without a visa. Mawdsley replied: "I don't need one, you're a bunch of terrorists."

The country is ruled by a military dictatorship, which has been condemned by human rights organisations since it came to power in 1962.

Although Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party won more than 80% of votes in the 1990 election, the military continues to refuse to transfer power to the elected MPs.

Aung San Suu Kyi heads Burma's National League for Democracy

Goldwyn and Mawdsley joined the pro-democracy movement after working in refugee camps on the Burma-Thai border - he in 1996, she a year later.

There, they learned of the sufferings of the Karenni people, one of the indigenous minorities.

Mawdsley got first-hand experience when his camp was attacked by Burmese troops - he and the refugees were forced to flee.

Although Goldwyn works as a researcher for the UK branch of the Democratic Burmese Students' Organisation (DBSO), neither she nor Mawdsley had been sent by campaigning organisations.

Their families talk of the jailed pair's idealism and commitment to working on behalf of others.

But Goldwyn never expected to locked up for her actions.

In a note to her parents, which they found after her arrest, she said: "Please know that I'll be home in about two weeks. I'll be deported to Bangkok pretty soon."

Jailed Briton James Mawdsley: Family fear he is being tortured in Burma

In an interview with the Observer after his arrest, Mawdsley said he believed he could be most effective working in Burma, rather than lobbying from the UK.

"The point is not to demonstrate. The point is to challenge the junta and I do that during the interrogation [in prison].

"I'm speaking for the exiles, the refugees and resistance groups who if they raised these points would be executed or put in prison for 20 years. I get 30 hours' detention."

His mother Diana believes her son's love of the books by Solzhenitsyn and Primo Levi were important catalysts in his idealism.

"When I gave James these books at the age of 15 he would gobble them up. I had little idea then it would lead to this."

John Jackson, director of the Burma Campaign UK which co-operates with the DBSO, says many of the organisation's 1,500 members got involved after travelling in Thailand.

His own reasons are closer to home.