The Rakhine State chief minister’s appeal to the Sittwe District court to overturn his sentence for an incitement conviction was overruled on Monday—the same day the petition was submitted.
Nyi Pu, 66, was sentenced to two years in prison in early October, after he was found by the junta’s judicial mechanism to have violated Section 505b of the Penal Code for inducing people to “commit an offence against the state.” He was charged in February after his party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), published statements encouraging public resistance to military rule following the coup earlier that month.
The military authorities accused the party’s central executive committee (CEC) members, including Nyi Pu, of inciting the public to violence through the statements, even though he was in custody at the time they were published.
Since the February 1 coup, the military has been arresting and filing major charges against state and regional chief ministers who are also NLD CEC members.
The junta had initially placed Nyi Pu under house arrest in the days after the coup, but transferred him to detention on February 10 after he posted a video on Facebook expressing his opposition to the coup. He was charged three days later.
Nyi Pu’s lawyer, Aung Myat Kyaw, did not comment on the rejection of his client’s appeal on Monday, but said that they would appeal to the Rakhine State High court.
“This case has a lot to do with the current political situation. I cannot disclose any other information due to this situation,” he told Myanmar Now
Kyi Kyi Oo, Nyi Pu’s daughter, said during his sentencing that her father had not been allowed to have contact with his family since his arrest and asked that they be granted a meeting with him.
Her sister, Moe San Suu Kyi, an NLD youth leader, was arrested by the junta authorities in Yangon on May 9 and has since been detained in Insein Prison.
In addition to the incitement conviction, Nyi Pu and four other ministers in the ousted Rakhine State administration are also facing three corruption charges filed in early August at the Rakhine State High Court for which hearings are ongoing. The charges are for allegedly violating Section 55 of the Anti-Corruption Law.
Nang Khin Htwe Myint, the Karen State chief minister and an NLD CEC member, was sentenced to 75 years in prison after she was convicted by the junta on five corruption charges. Similarly, the chief minister of Magway Region Aung Moe Nyo was also given a two-year prison sentence for a Section 505b charge, and is facing up to 90 years in prison if convicted of other pending charges.
