Prosecution lawyers on Tuesday began a special appeal to Myanmar’s Supreme Court to give harsher sentences to the men involved in the assassination of prominent government legal advisor Ko Ni.
Ko Ni was shot in the head at point blank range while holding his two-year-old grandson in January 2017. A taxi driver named Nay Win was also killed while trying to apprehend the gunman.
In January of this year, lawyers representing the dead men’s families said they would seek a special appeal after the court rejected their attempts to get harsher punishments for the conspirators.
A special appeal is the final avenue available to lawyers after the Supreme Court has decided on a case. It is not yet certain if the court will agree to consider one or when it will deliver a decision if it does.
While the gunman, Kyi Lin, and accomplice Aung Win Zaw received death sentences in February 2019, there was widespread anger when two others involved in the plot received just three and five years in prison.
Zeya Phyo, a former military intelligence captain, got five years for destroying evidence in the case after the initial charge against him of financing the assassination was suddenly dropped before the verdict.
And Aung Win Tun received a three year sentence for harbouring Aung Win Zaw, who is his brother, after the killing. The alleged mastermind, Aung Win Khaing. remains at large.
“This can’t happen again in the future and to avoid this, we need to set an example to stop anyone who’s plotting, and to show the punishments they would have to face,” said Khin Maung Htay, a lawyer for Ko Ni’s family.
Myanmar Now was unable to speak with lawyers representing the convicted men.
Kyi Lin and Aung Win Zaw are unlikely to ever be executed as Myanmar has had a moratorium on executions for decades.
Ko Ni was a close confidant of Aung San Suu Kyi and is credited with finding a loophole in the military-drafted constitution that allowed her to lead with the title of State Counsellor even though she was barred from becoming president.
Many believe he was killed because of his efforts to overturn the military’s charter.
Robert San Aung, the lawyer representing Nay Win’s family, noted that the Northern Yangon District Court did not make its verdict based on all the initial charges and called for “just” sentences.
“We genuinely believe this is a dark spot on Myanmar’s judicial system,” he said.
