Yangon (AsiaNews) - The Burmese authorities have sent a former political prisoner, freed under the recent presidential amnesty, back to jail. This is the first case of a prisoner of conscience, imprisoned by the military dictatorship, to be put back in prison for a similar offense since reformist Thein Sein became leader of Myanmar in 2011. The activist Nay Myo Zin, come under fire - according to relatives - for taking part in demonstrations "critical" of the Burmese police and now he will have to spend the next six years in jail.
The police arrested Nay Myo Zin (pictured) in last January, exactly one year after his release, on charges of defaming the police during a demonstration by farmers in the town of Pantanaw, Ayeyarwady Division, over forced expropriations. The activist accused police of having accepted bribes to carry out the land seizure. He was sentenced to pay a fine of 20 thousand kyat (about 22 dollars) or serve three months in prison.
Claiming innocence, he refused to pay the sum calling it "unjust" and was jailed. According to his brother Khin Maung Htwe, in an interview with Radio Free Asia (RFA), while he was in prison he received notification that the previous sentence of 2011 was to be enforced, in which he had been sentenced to 10 years in prison. Now, he will have to serve another six.
The news has caused alarm and concern in movements and organizations in defense of human rights in Myanmar, a nation that - after decades of military rule - was slowly opening up to the international community. Tate Naing Tun Kyi, executive secretary of the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners Burma (AAPP) points out that the story "is a strong signal to the thousands of former political prisoners" who tells them "you are not free at all." It is a blatant violation of rights, he adds, "and the free opportunity to participate in the process of national reconciliation and path of democratization" in Myanmar.
Activists and farmers previously defended by the man have launched a petition to President Thein Sein for Nay Myo Zin's release. One of the leaders of the 88 Generation Student Group movement, Jimmy Kyaw Min Yu, has also become involved calling it the return to jail of a man who has received an amnesty "a regressive step", sentencing him to serve a large part of the sentence for which he had been in previously convicted.