Kyauktada Township judge Than Naing Htwe has dismissed one of two defamation cases against Myanmar Now editor Swe Win.
Ma Ba Tha follower Thet Myo Oo filed a lawsuit against Swe Win last month, claiming that the editor had defamed Ma Ba Tha leader Wirathu and ‘insulted religion’. However, the judge ruled last week that the aggrieved party — in this case, Wirathu — would have to file the case himself in order for the allegation to have any merit.
However, Swe Win is still facing charges brought against him by another Ma Ba Tha follower, Kyaw Myo Shwe — the first of the two cases to be brought to court. The plaintiff opened the case under Section 66(d) of the Telecommunications Law in response to a Facebook post in which Swe Win denounced Wirathu for ‘thanking’ the gunman who killed NLD legal advisor Ko Ni, and dismissed the actions as unpardonable for a monk.
In a statement that was released last month after Kyaw Myo Shwe filed his case, the State Sangha Maha Nayaka Committee — commonly known as Ma Ha Na — recognized that Wirathu “has repeatedly delivered hate speech against religions to cause communal strife and hinder efforts to uphold the rule of law” and the latter was consequently “banned from delivering sermons across Myanmar for one year from March 10, 2017 to March 9, 2018.”
Following the announcement of the ban, Swe Win and his lawyers noted that comments made by both Ma Ha Na and the Ministry of Religious Affairs and Culture convey that there is no case against him, stating: “The suit cited [Ko Swe Win] had tarnished their reputation. But the [Ma Ha Na] committee who would be making the decision has already said that U Wirathu’s actions are unlawful, and that they have negatively impacted the council — this already implies what their decision would be; on the 13th, the Minister for the Ministry of Religious Affairs and Culture himself also gave this answer. This supersedes the case.”
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