Activists Get Six Months for Contempt

Irrawaddy News
30 Oct 2008

Nine Burmese activists who have been detained for more than a year received six-month prison sentences yesterday after they were found guilty of contempt of court under Section 228 of Burma’s Penal Code, according to a lawyer for the group.

The nine activists, who include Min Ko Naing and other prominent members of the 88 Generation Students group, were sentenced by a judge from the Northern District Court at Rangoon’s notorious Insein Prison, said the group’s lawyer, Aung Thein.

The contempt charges are related to demands by the detained activists that members of their families be permitted to attend a court hearing on October 3.

Although the court agreed to allow relatives to attend a hearing in August, when the authorities finally filed formal charges against the activists after holding them in detention for a full year, the request was denied during the hearing held earlier this month.

At the hearing in October, Min Ko Naing and other detained activists continued to insist that the court allow relatives to observe the proceedings. The presiding judge rejected the demand and told the defendants that they would be charged with contempt of court.

The activists—Min Ko Naing, Ko Ko Gyi, Pyone Cho (a.k.a. Htay Win Aung), Htay Kywe, Mya Aye, Hla Myo Naung, Nyan Lin, Aung Thu and Myo Aung—were among 35 members of the 88 Generation Students group who were charged in August with violating several laws, including Section 4 of SPDC Law No 5/96, which prohibits acts which “endanger the national convention.”

Min Ko Naing, Ko Ko Gyi, Pyone Cho and other members of the 88 Generation Students group were arrested last year for leading protests on August 19 against sharp increases in the price of fuel and other commodities. Meanwhile, Nyi Nyi Htwe, a lawyer for 11 detained youth members of the National League for Democracy, Burma’s main opposition party, was arrested on Wednesday, according to the Washington-based US Campaign for Burma.

Sources told The Irrawaddy that Nyi Nyi Htwe and three of the 11 defendants, who were arrested in September for taking part in a peaceful march to Rangoon’s Shwedagon Pagoda to mark the birthday of NLD leader Aung San Suu Kyi, were charged with contempt after they complained that they were not given an opportunity to hold proper consultations regarding their case.

According to the latest reports, the Northern District Court at Insein Prison found Nyi Nyi Htwe and the three NLD members—Wai Lwin Myo, Aung Min Naing and Yan Naing Tun—guilty of contempt and sentenced them to six months imprisonment earlier today.

The court also sentenced another political prisoner, Aung Thein Lwin, to 11 years imprisonment today after finding him guilty on five charges