Thura Aung Ko, the former minister of religious and cultural affairs under the ousted National League for Democracy (NLD) government, saw his 12-year prison sentence reduced by half, according to a junta statement released last week.
The April 22 statement said that the retired Brigadier General was handed a shortened sentence on the same day he was convicted of four corruption charges at a court inside Insein Prison in Yangon on March 14.
Aung Ko, 74, was admitted to the prison hospital last week after developing severe anemia and cardiomegaly, or an enlargement of the heart caused by an as-yet unidentified underlying condition, according to a source close to his family.
The source noted that while Aung Ko’s family had been notified of his admission to the prison hospital, they were not informed at that time that his sentence had been reduced.
“We were only notified about his severe anemia. We were told that he needed four blood transfusions and that he had cardiomegaly and that he wasn’t allowed to go to an outside hospital,” the source explained. “He only was allowed to read out his medical records with the authorities’ approval.”
Aung Ko has been in junta detention since the coup on February 1, 2021, during which time he has been barred from receiving visits from his family. His daughter previously told Myanmar Now that they had only heard secondhand that Aung Ko was suffering from frequent health issues, since he also has diabetes.
Although they were allowed to send Aung Ko medications monthly, she said she was concerned that he was not taking them regularly.
Aung Ko, who also once held a top post in the military’s proxy Union Solidarity and Development Party, joined the NLD government in 2016.
During his tenure he drew the ire of both ultra-nationalists and the military by abolishing the anti-Muslim hate group Ma Ba Tha. He also supported amending the military’s 2008 Constitution and was a key figure in the move to prosecute the hate-preaching monk Wirathu during the NLD’s tenure.
The junta accused him of receiving 10 million kyat (roughly US$7,000) in July 2020 and 30 million kyat in March the same year in exchange for giving people religious titles. It also said that he had been given a Ford Everest Titanium luxury vehicle worth more than 100 million kyat ($70,000) in December 2019 by a businessman.
He is also accused of keeping a golden plate weighing 326 grams that was meant to be donated to the Htarwara Nyein Chan Yay, or Perpetual Peace, pagoda, which was built by State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi in Naypyitaw.
