A reporter for the Burmese language website of the BBC has been given 3 months in prison with hard labor after he was accused of punching a police officer in the face last year.
Nay Myo Lin, who is based in Mandalay, was found guilty of “voluntarily causing hurt to deter [a] public servant from his duty.”
The 40-year-old was accused of assaulting Lance Corporal Ba Maw during a protest in solidarity with students in March 2015.
Nay Myo Lin, who was covering the demonstration, has long disputed Ba Maw’s description of events.
“Students were protesting on motorbikes,” he told the Irrawaddy last year. “I arrived there during an altercation with the crowd. He [Ba Maw] just suddenly appeared in front of my motorbike. He startled me while I was taking photos, and I raised my hands, worrying that my bike might fall over. I don’t know where he got a bruise, but he has accused me of hitting him.”
The BBC’s Myanmar correspondent, Jonah Fisher, confirmed the sentencing on Twitter today but declined to comment further.
