Local film star arrested after cathedral protest
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Local film star Ye Deight has been arrested for staging a solo protest inside the compound of a Catholic cathedral in downtown Yangon on Tuesday.
Ye Deight first entered St Mary’s Cathedral, in Botahtaung Township, around 10am on Tuesday morning, but clashed with cathedral officials.
He returned around noon the same day, but was told that the cathedral was closed between 12pm and 3pm.
At 1.20pm he returned again to the cathedral and staged a solo protest. According to Lieutenant-Maj Thazan, commander of Botahtaung Police Station, Ye Deight was bearing a sign that read “I love to kneel down in front of JC [Jesus Christ] but someone from the Church told me ‘You are a fool’. I believe in justice”.
Ye Deight has been charged under section 295A of the Penal Code with “injuring or defiling a place of worship with intent to insult the religion of any class”.
“His behaviour included actions that insult Christians, so officials from the cathedral told him to stop doing so, but he didn’t listen. [They] informed us so we had to detain him,” said Thazan.
St Mary’s Cathedral Parish Pastor Council said on Tuesday night that Ye Deight had entered an area of the cathedral out-of-bounds to the public while wearing a sleeveless shirt, then turned his back on the grotto. Then he returned with reporters and the media to stage a protest inside the cathedral’s compound.
“If actor Ye Deight makes a public apology, we will withdraw the case,” said Khin Maung Win, chairman of the cathedral’s Parish Pastor Council.
Ye Deight, however, said defiantly: “I will apologise only if I was in the wrong.”
