Religious leader Dr Hkalam Samson will face trial on January 11 in the Kachin State capital Myitkyina for a charge brought under Section 17(1) of the colonial-era Unlawful Associations Act, according to a relative.
Dr Samson, a reverend and former chair of the Kachin Baptist Convention (KBC), was arrested on December 5 at the Mandalay International Airport, where he intended to board a flight to Thailand for medical treatment. He was then taken to the Northern Regional Military Command (RMC) headquarters in Myitkyina, and KBC officials received notification the following day that he would face charges.
An officer from the Northern RMC filed the Section 17(1) charge against Dr Samson at the Myitkyina Police Station on December 28, and he is currently being held at the Myitkyina Prison, according to a family member.
“Right now, all we’ve been told is there is a Section 17(1) charge and we don’t know if there are any others,” Dr Samson’s family member told Myanmar Now. “The plaintiff wasn’t from the police station. He’s a major from the Northern Military Command, as far as I’ve heard, but they told me that they couldn’t tell us his name.”
The family only learned about the charge against Dr Samson when they inquired at the Myitkyina Police Station on December 30.
“They told us that 10 items in his possession, including his Bible and electronic devices, were confiscated as evidence,” the family member said.
The military have not yet allowed Dr Samson’s family to visit him after holding him in detention for nearly a month. KBC officials also requested permission to meet with their former leader but the military has not responded to any of the requests, according to a minister affiliated with the KBC.
The military has stated that Dr Samson was arrested for meeting with the leadership of the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) in Laiza, a claim Dr Samson’s relative dismissed as absurd.
According to the same family member, Dr Samson is not just a reverend but also a KBC representative, which requires him to travel anywhere members of the congregation may be.
“They need to release him as soon as possible. There is absolutely no reason for them to detain him,” the family member added.
Before the coup regime seized power in 2021, Dr Samson had voiced criticism of the military but later publicly reconciled with them, expressing hope that the military could change in the interest of peace.
As chair of the KBC in 2019, Dr Samson met with US President Donald Trump in Washington and told him the military was oppressing Christians in Myanmar, thanking him for US sanctions against top military officials. Shortly thereafter, the military directly petitioned the court to take legal action against him.
However, the military dropped their case against Dr Samson three days later, inviting him to a meeting at Myanmar’s Central RMC in Mandalay to resolve their differences publicly.
Dr Samson also personally met with Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, who would later lead the February 2021 coup that installed the present military regime in power. The reverend’s recent arrest and detention occurred despite this ostensible reconciliation.
