The junta has charged the former head of Myanmar’s Covid-19 vaccination programme with corruption after she returned 168 million kyat to the UN body UNICEF to prevent it falling into the hands of the military in the wake of the February 1 coup.
Dr Htar Htar Lin was arrested while meeting a friend in downtown Yangon in June, months after she returned the money meant to help immunise Myanmar’s population against the virus and joined the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM) against the junta.
She also withdrew 8.1 billion kyat and allocated 10.5 billion kyat of funds to regions and states, a report in the military-run Global New Light of Myanmar said. A colleague said at the time of her arrest that the military took particular issue with her because she prevented them from getting hold of these funds.
Htar Htar Lin has already been charged with treason along with 24 other doctors involved in the movement to topple the junta. The new charge under Section 56 of the Anti-Corruption Law carries a prison sentence of up to 10 years.
The junta has also charged Dr Soe Oo, the director general of the public health department, under Section 63 of the same law for being an accessory to corruption by failing to oversee Htar Htar Lin’s activities, the Global New Light report said.
The new charge against Htar Htar Lin was filed at the Phayarkone Central Police Station in Naypyitaw on November 30, the newspaper added.
At the time of Htar Htar Lin’s arrest junta forces also detained her husband and seven-year-old son, a colleague of hers said.
“I heard that during her earliest interrogations, they interrogated her in front of her son. They didn’t allow her son to be at her side. They kept him at a place where she would be able to see him during her interrogation,” the colleague said.
Htar Htar Lin is being held at the Naypyitaw Detention Centre and Dr Soe Oo has been under house arrest in Naypyitaw since he resigned from his post to protest the junta in late February, the colleague said. Myanmar Now was unable to verify this information.
The junta in June said that Htar Htar Lin was the leader of the public health team for the underground National Unity Government, under the supervision of health minister Dr Zaw Wai Soe.
Before her arrest, Htar Htar Lin wrote in an email to her colleagues that the junta wanted to try to get back $75 million of public funds that had been given to the Serum Institute of India for Covid-19 vaccines.
“Please let the world know how the cruel, stupid and utterly despicable military rob the country,” she wrote. “It is totally unacceptable.”
In a Facebook post in February, she wrote: “We can’t let the dictators use the vaccination program as a weapon.”
In August another doctor taking part in the CDM who was arrested around the same time as Htar Htar Lin, died of Covid-19 in junta custody. Dr Maung Maung Nyein Tun, 45, was detained along with his wife Dr Swe Zin Oo and appears to have been tortured in custody.
