Hla Swe, firebrand who evaded arrest for sedition after saying government should be bombed, turns himself in 

Firebrand nationalist and former Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) lawmaker Hla Swe turned himself in on Monday after a year and four months in hiding from a sedition charge, an official from the Yangon Western District Court said. 

He is the latest among a number of far-right extremists, including the hate-preaching monk Wirathu, to hand themselves in in recent weeks after long spells as fugitives. 

The retired Lieutenant Colonel, who is also known as Bullet Hla Swe, now faces a prison sentence of up to 20 years for a speech he gave in August 2019 in which he said it would be “great” if senior members of the government died in bombing attacks. 

“If America comes to bomb the Secretariat, the President’s Office, and the cabinet offices and the State Counsellor’s Office, wouldn’t you agree with it? Just sit back and watch,” he told a crowd of nationalists at a protest against a US decision to sanction top Myanmar generals.

He added: “Bomb these places! Let all the cabinet members and the ministers die. Wouldn’t that be great?”

The Western District Court has already begun to try Hla Swe in absentia and it is unclear how the trial will now proceed, the court official said, requesting anonymity. 

Hla Swe, 60, was wearing a pink shirt, white trousers and sunglasses when he arrived at the court, the Tomorrow News Journal reported. 

In a video interview he gave shortly before handing himself in on Monday, Hla Swe told Myanmar Hard Talk that he had been in hiding because the charge against him is “unfair”.

“This charge is too much,” he told the program, which is known to be particularly critical of the National League for Democracy-led government. “Under a government that is unfair, those who are rebels or on the run are the braver ones,” Hla Swe said.

The court tried to confiscate Hla Swe’s property while he was in hiding but was unable to because they were registered in the name of his ex-wife.

Shortly before the November 8 general election Wirathu, a key figure in the Ma Ba Tha hate group, turned himself in to authorities after evading a sedition charge for almost 18 months. 

And early this month three supporters of the men who plotted the assassination of Ko Ni also turned themselves in. Hein Wai Yan, Myat Bhone Mo, and Aung Lin had attended one of the killers’ court hearings wearing t-shirts reading “Eat while you can” – a message seen as a threat to journalists reporting on the case.