U Ko Ni

Second suspect arrested in case of Ko Ni’s killing

A second suspect has been arrested in connection with the high-profile assassination of Ko Ni, a top legal adviser for the ruling National League for Democracy (NLD) party, Burma’s President’s Office announced Friday night. The man, named Aung Win Zaw, 46, is accused of being an accomplice of Kyi Linn, who was arrested after allegedly shooting dead Ko Ni at close range with a pistol in the compound of Rangoon International Airport on Sunday evening. Police apprehended Aung Win Zaw on a bridge over the Salween River in Karen State at 4:20 p.m. on Monday, but his arrest had not been announced until now. Police arrested Kyi Linn, 53, outside the airport compound within minutes of the killing. Police officers and a former fellow prisoner have told Myanmar Now that two suspects had committed crimes together in the past and served lengthy prison sentences in Obo Prison in Mandalay for smuggling Buddha statues to neighbouring countries. They were released in a presidential amnesty in 2014, the sources said. Kyi Linn also served an earlier sentence for the same crime in the late 1980s. Aung Soe, 51, a former fellow inmate at Obo Prison, had told a Myanmar Now reporter on Monday evening — a…