Myanmar jails 2 opposition members
YANGON, Myanmar — A court in military-run Myanmar has sentenced two members of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s party to 18 months in prison after they prayed for her release at a pagoda, the opposition party spokesman said Sunday.
The news came days before Suu Kyi’s trial is set to resume in a court in Yangon, the largest city. The 64-year-old Nobel Peace Prize laureate is accused of violating the terms of her house arrest.
A court in southern Yangon sentenced Chit Pe and Aung Saw Wei on Tuesday after convicting them on charges of insulting religion, said National League of Democracy spokesman Nyan Win.
The two were arrested in April after they led prayers for the release of Suu Kyi and other political prisoners at a pagoda in Twante, about 20 miles (32 kilometers) south of Yangon, Nyan Win said.
“They were not insulting religion but praying at a pagoda as all Buddhists do,” said Nyan Win, who is also Suu Kyi’s lawyer.
Separately, three other members of the NLD were arrested in Yangon on June 12 after they distributed photographs of Suu Kyi in eastern Yangon, he said.
“They have been detained and were remanded under the Explosives Acts,” the spokesman said, adding that he did not know the details of the charges.
Myanmar’s military, which has held power since 1962, tolerates no dissent. The current junta came to power in 1988 after crushing a nationwide pro-democracy uprising and has stepped up its campaign against opposition politicians and activists ahead of elections planned for next year.
It last held an election in 1990, but the junta refused to honor the results after a landslide victory by Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party.
In recent months, military courts have sentenced hundreds of pro-democracy activists to prison terms of up to 104 years.
Myanmar now has more than 2,100 political prisoners, according to rights groups. The most prominent among them is Suu Kyi, who has spent more than 13 of the last 19 years in detention without trial.
She is currently in Yangon’s Insein prison facing trial for alleged violation of the terms of her house arrest when an uninvited American man swam secretly to her closely guarded lakeside home in May and stayed two days.
Her trial is currently in recess and scheduled to resume Friday. If convicted, she faces up to five years in prison.
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