Among the 186 Myanmar prisoners who were granted amnesty today by the Myanmar government ‘as a gesture to welcome the [21st Century Panglong Conference]’ was Hla Phone, also known as the alleged owner of the ‘Kyat Pha Gyi’ (‘Big Rooster’) Facebook page.
Hla Phone had been sentenced to two years in prison last November under four different charges, including Section 66(d) of the Telecommunications Law, after being found guilty of defaming government officials in a series of posts he had uploaded on the Kyat Pha Gyi page. One post contained an image of a dog defecating on Senior General Min Aung Hlaing with the caption ‘Fuck 25 percent’, which seemingly referenced the fact that the military is automatically allotted 25 percent of parliamentary seats. Another post showed an image of Min Aung Hlaing wearing a hta mein on his head.
Although Hla Phone repeatedly denied that he was the one behind the page — similar posts continued to be uploaded while he was in the midst of trial and with no internet access — he was arrested last February and denied bail. In November, he was sentenced to prison for two years, minus the nine months that he spent behind bars while the trial was ongoing. As Eleven reports, at 8:45am this morning, approximately six months after his sentencing, Hla Phone was released from Insein Prison.
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