Critic of Myanmar junta denied amnesty, sentenced to hard labour

A meal delivery worker convicted on sedition charges after criticising the country’s junta leader was handed a sentence of three years’ hard labour last Thursday morning in Yangon, according to sources close to his family. Kyi Myo Zaw—also commonly called U Kyi—a 54-year-old resident of Yangon’s Hlaing Township, received his sentence for charges including violations of section 505a of Myanmar’s penal code on sedition at a court inside the city’s Insein Prison, a man familiar with his relatives said. “The lawyer asked whether they wished to present additional evidence, but the interrogation continued until U Kyi confessed. He deliberately confessed to the charge to hasten the verdict,” the man said. U Kyi was detained at his home on January 6 of this year after posts on a pro-junta propaganda Telegram channel urged his arrest, accusing him of disparaging the military regime’s leader—Senior General Min Aung Hlaing—as well as sharing a photo of imprisoned civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi and spreading anti-junta commentary on social media. Following interrogation, he was taken to Insein Prison and charged under Section 505a of the penal code for sedition and Section 50j of the Counter-Terrorism Law regarding terrorist financing, with authorities pointing to what they called unusually large transactions he had made through electronic payment apps as evidence, the family associate said. On March 2, Myanmar’s military regime granted amnesty to more than 10,000 prisoners nationwide, including more than 7,000 charged under Sections 52a and 50j of the Counter-Terrorism Law. The released prisoners included former ministers of the civilian-led National League for Democracy (NLD) government, which the military deposed upon seizing power in 2021. The military-run judiciary also closed open terrorism-related cases against more than 12,000 people detained or wanted by the regime. However, ultimately the Section 50j terrorism charge against U Kyi was not dropped and his trial went ahead. According to U Kyi’s family friend, he was initially on the pardon list and awaiting his clearance certificate to go free but was re-arrested and sent back to prison. “He was on the pardon list and had already given away his prison belongings to others,” the man said. “He could only be released once the court issued his certificate, but it was withheld, with officials saying his case was still under review.” Myanmar’s military authorities, which favoured charging protesters, journalists, resistance members, and other opponents of military rule with sedition in the months following the 2021 coup, later shifted to charging more detainees with terrorism-related offences, which carry longer sentences. U Kyi, who worked as a driver with the Yangon Bus Service before the military coup, was previously arrested and imprisoned on sedition charges in 2021 and released in 2023. Rather than go back to his job as a bus driver after his release, he started working as a bicycle courier, making monthly meal box deliveries to customers’ homes. He suffers from rheumatoid arthritis, a condition for which he has received treatment at the prison hospital, his relatives said. According to the research group Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, 4,403 political prisoners were released from 39 prisons across Myanmar in the junta’s March 2 amnesty. The civil society group Progressive Voice for Myanmar called the amnesty—which occurred shortly after elections closely managed by the military authorities—a “public relations ploy” intended to bolster the coup regime’s claims to legitimacy, cautioning the international community not to be misled by it.

Critic of Myanmar junta denied amnesty, sentenced to hard labour

A bicycle courier in his 50s was sentenced to three years’ imprisonment with hard labour after pro-junta propagandists accused him of disparaging Myanmar’s junta leader and funding terrorists

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