Activist gets six more months in prison for leaflet protest

 

He was found guilty of violating a section of the criminal code rights groups say is frequently used to stifle dissent and intimidate activists. 

Section 505(b) of the Penal Code makes it a crime to publish or circulate information that could encourage a citizen “to commit an offence against the state or against the public tranquility”. 

Htin Kyaw, who leads the Movement for Democracy Current Force – a community-based organisation that campaigns against land-grabbing and other often state-sanctioned crimes – had handed out leaflets in the township on June 5 saying the government could not be trusted and that its role was to serve the public.

“The judicial system is corrupt. It is controlled by the government,” Htin Kyaw said after the verdict. He also said prosecutors had failed to prove he had defamed the government and insisted that the leaflets he had handed out contained information that people needed to know. 

“I do not support any government that does not demonstrate sympathy to or try to help the people,” Htin Kyaw said. 

Htin Kyaw was first imprisoned under the former junta in 2007, but was quick to resume his activism after being released in an amnesty in January 2013. He was jailed twice last year after he organised protests against alleged land grabs. He was freed again on December 11 in a presidential amnesty, but was arrested and jailed again on sedition charges on the same day, rights group’s reported.

Almost half the 41 political prisoners released in the December 11 amnesty, the 14th since Thein Sein took office, had been detained under his government, according to the Hong Kong-based Asian Human Rights Commission. “Despite the extensive political changes taking place in [Myanmar], many old habits are continuing under new guises,” the regional watchdog added.

Htin Kyaw was freed again in an amnesty at the end of last year. President Thein Sein announced the next day – on January 1 – that all political prisoners had been freed from Myanmar’s jails. Rights groups and former political prisoners said this statement was false, pointing to a list of 46 political prisoners who remained behind bars. Since then scores more have been detained, charged, arrested and jailed under what rights groups describe as trumped-up charges intended to stifle dissent. 

Earlier this year the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detentions released a report on Htin Kyaw’s detention last year, after consultations with Nay Pyi Taw. It said the government had wrongfully detained the activist and violated three Articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It also called for the government to make “reparations” to the activist. (hyperlink: http://www.fidh.org/IMG/pdf/letter_to_the_source_opinion_no._56-2013_myanmar_.pdf/)

Htin Kyaw, however, faces charges in several townships of Yangon for peaceful, sometimes solo, protests. Often these protests take the form a walk through a township announcing his opposition to Section 18 of the Peaceful Assembly and Peaceful Procession Law protest law with a megaphone, or standing outside court buildings holding placards denouncing the law. The section requires protesters to seek permission from authorities before protesting. An amendment to this law, which removes the requirement for prior permission to protest peacefully, was passed by Parliament and is awaiting the president’s signature.

However, a court in Kyauktada Township sentenced Htin Kyaw to three months imprisonment on June 4 for protesting what he says were illegal land seizures in Thameekalay village.

Two other members of the Movement for Democracy Current Force – Tin Maung Kyi and Zaw Win – have been charged under Section 505 (B) of the Penal Code over protests in Tamwe, Bahan and Mingala Taung Nyunt townships. They will be tried today.