MyanmarNews

Myanmar junta detains deputy defence minister over alleged ties to online scam industry

Gen Aung Lin Tun, who has held his military council position for more than three years, was reportedly named by China for participating in internet fraud schemes out of the Kokang region

The junta has detained and is reportedly interrogating its own deputy defence minister in Naypyitaw for his alleged involvement in online scam rings in the city of Laukkai, on the Myanmar-China border. 

The arrest of Gen Aung Lin Tun was allegedly carried out at the request of the Chinese authorities, making him the highest ranking member of the military council to be investigated on the issue. In the past, the junta has handed over ethnic Kokang militia leaders and pro-military political party officers to China after they were said to have been identified as facilitating the massive internet fraud industry in the Kokang region of northern Shan State.

The general was last seen in public at a meeting of the central recruitment committee on conscription, of which he serves as chair, in military-controlled Naypyitaw on March 4. However, his seat was conspicuously empty at later meetings. . .

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