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| Opposition member, Nay Myo Zin (second from right), standing outside Pantanaw township court on 22 April 2013 (photo: Nay Myo Zin's Facebook) |
Human rights activists slammed the Burmese government on Wednesday for revoking a prison amnesty granted to an opposition party member last year, after he was accused of ‘defaming’ the police.
It is the first time since military rule ended two years ago that a dissident’s pardon has been overturned.
Nay Myo Zin, 38, served less than a year of a decade-long sentence for writing for various exiled media outlets, before being released in January 2012 as part of President Thein Sein’s widely lauded democratic reform programme.
But the retired military captain was told on Tuesday that he would have to serve six years of his original sentence because he was recently convicted of defaming the police, according to his wife Zin Myo Maw.
Nay Myo Zin was last week sentenced to three months in jail after allegedly telling farmers in a land dispute in the Irrawaddy delta that local police had accepted bribes, his wife said.
He was due to be released on Tuesday after the farmers paid his fine.
“While we were waiting for his release yesterday at the prison, a local official read out the order of the home affairs minister Ko Ko sentencing him to re-serve six years,” she said.
“He didn’t commit any crime… I feel very sorry for him,” she added, vowing to fight for his release.
His re-arrest raises concerns for the safety of all former political prisoners, including journalists, who have been released conditionally under a presidential pardon. Human rights activists say the case shows that Burma’s reforms are only “skin-deep”.
“The jailing of Nay Myo Zin shows why the EU and USA have been premature to lift sanctions,” Mark Farmaner from Burma Campaign UK (BCUK) told DVB.
“The unconditional release of all political prisoners was a key benchmark set by the EU and USA, but they went ahead lifting sanctions despite most releases being conditional. They have been duped by skin deep reforms.”
Nine Nine, a senior member of Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD), also condemned the decision and pledged to support their party member.
“It’s wrong. [The government] can do whatever they want after they have released people under an amnesty,” Nine Nine told AFP.
All political prisoners have been released under section 401 of Burma’s draconian penal code, which means that they can be re-arrested at any time if they are deemed to have “violated” the terms of their release.
But President Thein Sein has been widely credited for freeing hundreds of people since coming to power in early 2011, resulting in the lifting of most Western sanctions against the former pariah state.
Last month dozens of political prisoners were pardoned a day after the European Union agreed to end almost all sanctions against the former pariah state.
But activists say more than 200 political prisoners remain in jail and accuse Burma’s government of using a series of headline-grabbing prisoner releases for political gain.
Credit & Copy From; http://www.dvb.no/news/politics-news/burma-revokes-pardon-of-dissident-writer-for-%E2%80%98defaming%E2%80%99-police/28012
