Patrick Khum Jaa Lee, a Kachin peace activist, has been sentenced to six months in jail after sharing a Facebook post criticizing Myanmar’s military.
He was arrested in October over the photo, which showed a Kachin minority man treading on an image of the Commander-in-Chief, and charged under the Telecommunications Law.
On account of the 99 days he’s already spent behind bars in Insein prison, Patrick Khum Jaa Lee, who suffers from asthma and high blood pressure, could be eligible for release in April.
The sentence was handed down at Yangon’s Hlaing Township court on Friday afternoon, the same day dozens of political prisoners were released in a countrywide amnesty.
Patrick Khum Jaa Lee’s lawyer, Robert San Aung, told Coconuts Yangon the verdict was in conflict with the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights and would set a bad precedent for future cases.
“It can impact human rights in Myanmar,” he said.
In a statement, Amnesty International condemned the sentencing as “outrageous”.
“Today’s events perfectly sum up how the Myanmar authorities give with one hand and take with the other,” said Laugh Haigh, the organization’s Myanmar researcher.
“Just hours after the prisoner amnesty was announced, an activist has been sentenced to six months in jail for nothing but a harmless Facebook post.
“Although we are delighted for those who walk free today, scores more remain behind bars while hundreds of other peaceful activists are on bail facing jail time.”
The list of prisoners released Friday did not include Phyoe Phyoe Aung, Secretary General of the All Burma Federation of Student Unions (ABFSU), who is on trial alongside dozens of student protesters who campaigned against a reviled education law in 2015.
Nor did it include five employees of Unity Weekly magazine, imprisoned after publishing a story about an alleged chemical weapons factory in 2014, or the writer Htin Lin Oo, who was jailed for two years after saying Buddhism should not be used to encourage religious hatred.
