Authorities torture, withhold medical care from Monywa activist leader in Obo Prison

Since his transfer to Obo Prison in Mandalay last month, prominent anti-coup protest leader Wai Moe Aung has suffered brutal mistreatment and been deprived of medical attention by prison authorities, according to the Political Prisoners Network-Myanmar (PPNM). A statement released by the PPNM on Monday said that after moving him from Monywa Prison in the Sagaing Region capital on June 12, authorities had beat Wai Moe Aung on the forehead with an iron rod, confined him to a punishment cell, and refused to administer medical treatment for his injuries. Wai Moe Aung was among nearly 200 inmates transferred from Monywa to Obo Prison on the same day. Authorities beat and tortured the political prisoners from the moment of their arrival, according to the PPNM statement, as well as identifying Wai Moe Aung by name and targeting him personally. Wai Moe Aung bled excessively and lost consciousness, but authorities placed him in shackles in a solitary confinement cell rather than sending him to the prison infirmary, PPNM spokesperson Thike Tun Oo told Myanmar Now. Prisoners in solitary confinement are typically subject to severe restrictions on their rights to visits from outside and their access to letters and parcels. “We understand that Wai Moe Naing's head wound was serious enough to require 12 stitches. Since he wasn’t taken to either the prison infirmary or an outside hospital, we are still trying to confirm how accurate this is,” Thike Tun Oo said. “Ko Wai Moe Naing was specifically targeted. Prison officials shouted things like ‘So, are you Wai Moe Naing, the Monywa protest leader?’ with personal hatred,” Thike Tun Oo said. “They beat him from the moment he entered the prison.” A prominent leader of a people’s strike against the newly installed military junta in Monywa, Sagaing Region in 2021, Wai Moe Naing was arrested on April 15 of that year after junta personnel drove into a protest convoy and rammed his motorcycle. A junta court sentenced Wai Moe Naing to 74 years in prison on charges of incitement and taking up arms against an officer under Section 505(a) of the Penal Code, high treason, and murder. The murder charges were related to his alleged involvement in the killing of two police officers in Monywa in March 2021. When a junta special court lengthened his sentence in March 2024, the monitoring group Assistance Association for Political Prisoners commented that Myanmar’s military regime has been responsible for egregious miscarriages of justice against pro-democracy activists, and that their charges against Wai Moe Naing were fabricated.

Authorities torture, withhold medical care from Monywa activist leader in Obo Prison

Advocates for political prisoners’ rights said authorities singled out the Monywa protest leader for abuse from the day he entered the prison in June

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