Members of the coup regime’s armed forces arrested a social worker in southern Rakhine State’s Taungup Township on Tuesday, charging him with allegedly financing the anti-junta People’s Defence Force (PDF), according to his family.
Seven junta plainclothes police arrived at the home of Min Ko Oo at around 9am and took him to custody, according to his father, Khin Maung Sein, who said that the police also seized Min Ko Oo’s computer and phone.
He was later informed by junta authorities that his son was charged with violating Section 50j of the Counterterrorism Law, which carries a prison sentence of 10 years to life for financing so-called terrorist groups.
“They said that they arrested my son because he has been accused of financing those [armed resistance groups] in central Myanmar,” Khin Maung Sein told Myanmar Now.
Min Ko Oo works on social welfare issues, raising funds at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic for those in poverty, as well as teaching English language classes for underprivileged youth in Taungup, according to his father.
Khin Maung Sein said the allegations against his son are false, calling his arrest “an injustice” and maintaining that he had no ties to the PDFs.
“I know my son better than anyone. He only works for improving people’s lives around Taungup, nothing else,” he said.
Min Ko Oo is the eighth person in Rakhine State to be arrested and charged with violating the Counterterrorism Law in connection with the PDF, despite the fact that there has been little evidence of anti-coup activities or another armed resistance movement emerging in the state since the military seized power in February.
In October, three men, including Arakan Front Party candidate Sein Chit, his partner in charity work Ye Naing Oo, and Mrauk-U-based writer Min Dipar, were arrested on suspicion of having ties to the PDF and charged under the Counterterrorism Law.
In early November, two women and a teenage girl were arrested in Rakhine’s Thandwe Township and later charged under the same law for allegedly financing PDF operations.
Later in the month, 40-year-old schoolteacher Cherry Thet Shey was taken into custody in Taungup, for reasons believed to be related to her participation in the Civil Disobedience Movement.
Aye Myint Myat Aung, 21, was detained on suspicion of financially supporting the PDF earlier this month in Kyaukphyu Township. Her family has rejected the accusation.
At least 10 local leaders from the National League for Democracy—whose elected government was ousted in the February coup—have also faced prosecution in Rakhine State on various charges. The party enjoys strong support in the state’s southern townships.
