Myanmar junta court hands draconian prison sentences to five NLD women

The Obo Prison Court in Mandalay sentenced five women members of the dissolved National League for Democracy (NLD) party to serve between seven and 37 years in prison on Monday. Ohn Mar Win, also known as Ohn Mar Win, 52, used to serve as secretary of the NLD’s Amarapura Township chapter. She was sentenced to 37 years in prison for charges under sections 50a, 50j, and 52a of Myanmar’s Counterterrorism Law. Her daughter Phway Thant Phyu, 27, and fellow NLD member Ei Thu Lay, 39, were each sentenced to seven years, while Khin Phyu Phyu Aung, 48, and Yi Win, who is in her 40s, each received 22-year sentences for charges brought under the same law. Before her arrest, Ohn Mar Win took part in a public commemoration of the 8888 Uprising—a wave of protests against a previous military dictatorship in 1988—is reportedly in solitary confinement, according to another NLD member close to her family. “Ohn Mar Win and another person are currently in solitary confinement,” the source said. “Their sentences were issued in absentia.” Considering that Ohn Mar Win suffers from osteoarthritis and requires regular medication, the conditions of her imprisonment have raised concerns about her health, the source added. “When she first arrived, she was denied medical treatment because her verdict had not yet been delivered,” the source said. “She was sentenced to four months in solitary confinement, and we still cannot send her care packages as the four-month period has not yet ended.” Authorities reportedly detained the five women while they were travelling on the Sagaing–Monywa in a private car on the morning of March 28. It was not until August that their families received information that the military was holding them in Mandalay’s Obo Prison. Once they were able to communicate with their families, it emerged that soldiers had arrested the women at a checkpoint between Nyaung Pin Wun and None villages in Sagaing Township, some After arriving at Obo Prison and communicating with their families, it was discovered that the women had been arrested by junta soldiers at a checkpoint between Nyaung Pin Wun and None villages some 20 miles northwest of Sagaing. They were initially detained at the Sagaing Township Police Station. Authorities then moved them to the Brigade 33 base for interrogation a few days later, and after a few months transferred them to Obo Prison, bringing charges against them under the Counterterrorism Law, according to sources close to their families. Ohn Mar Win or Ohn Ohn (seen wearing a flower) and Khin Phyu Phyu Aung were among those who received long prison sentences from a junta-controlled court on Monday. Ohn Mar Win, 52, received a 37-year sentence and Khin Phyu Phyu Aung, 48, received a 22-year sentence, both for charges under the Counterterrorism Law (Photo: Supplied) “They were well known in the party even before the coup. That was why they had been hiding since then. It is very sad that they met this fate while travelling,” said the source who spoke to Myanmar Now. The Myanmar military regime has yet to issue any statement regarding the women’s arrest or imprisonment. Human rights lawyer Ywet Nu Aung—a legal adviser to the NLD and member of the party’s central executive committee in Mandalay Region—was also previously handed a long sentence for terrorism charges, and is currently serving 15 years with hard labour in Obo Prison. He was arrested while helping several other NLD members with their cases following their arrests by the junta, including party patron Win Htein and Mandalay Region chief minister and NLD vice-chair Dr. Zaw Myint Maung, who is now deceased. The military arrested monks, doctors, engineers, students, elderly people, NLD members and other civilians in Mandalay after taking power in the coup of February 2021, holding most of them in Obo Prison. Just over two years after the coup, the junta-controlled union election commission disbanded the NLD and other influential parties, such as the Shan Nationalities League for Democracy (SNLD), changing the criteria for party registration and barring any party that failed to meet the new requirements from competing in future elections. According to the NLD’s human rights documentation team, the junta has detained 140 NLD members of parliament and more than 2,800 party members since the coup, as well as seizing and sealing off the properties of 199 of the party’s MPs and 258 of its members. A report released by the team also counted 167 incidents of vandalism at the party’s headquarters in Yangon and various branch offices at the state, region, district, township, and village levels.

Myanmar junta court hands draconian prison sentences to five NLD women

Five members of the disbanded pro-democracy party received sentences between seven and 37 years on terrorism charges

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