The controversial trial of Myanmar human rights activist Khaing Myo Htun ended at a Sittwe courthouse yesterday with a conviction and an 18-month prison sentence. He was found guilty of sedition and incitement against the Myanmar military for his role in a report accusing the Myanmar army of committing torture and forced labor against civilians in Rakhine State.
The report was published in April 2016 by the Arakan Liberation Party (ALP) – the political wing of the Arakan Liberation Army (ALA), which is a signatory to a ceasefire agreement with the Myanmar government. Khaing Myo Htun served as deputy information officer for the party at the time.
With time already served, the activist will have to spend another three months in prison.
“[This] verdict deals another blow to human rights in Myanmar. Khaing Myo Htun is going to spend another three months in jail for doing what Myanmar’s authorities should be doing: defending innocent people from human rights violations,” said David Baulk, a Myanmar human rights specialist with Fortify Rights.
“This is just the latest example of Myanmar’s judicial system serving the military rather than the public interest. At the end of the day, Khaing Myo Htun was trying to help the government and military to do their job. Myanmar’s human rights defenders are imprisoned for helping innocent people get justice for wrongs they’ve suffered, and that shows how dire the human rights situation is in Myanmar right now,” he said.
The activist’s case has been beset by controversy since it began. When he was first called in over the report by Rakhine State’s minister for security and border affairs, Colonel Htein Lin, in July 2016, Khaing Myo Htun was told he would only face charges if he could not substantiate its claims. Nonetheless, when he came back with video testimony from more than a dozen villagers corroborating the claims of forced labor and torture, he was arrested anyway.
Although the ALP’s leadership signed off on the report, Khaing Myo Htun was the only member held responsible for it.
During the trial, Frontier reported, objections from Khaing Myo Htun’s defense team were prohibited by the judge, who showed a preference for the prosecution throughout the proceedings. The judge also scheduled hearings every two weeks rather than every week, prolonging the activist’s detention.
Khaing Myo Htun’s sentencing yesterday came after the judge determined that he had not substantiated his report’s claims, even after two defense witnesses claimed they had personally been subjected to forced labor by the Myanmar military in Rakhine State.
Since it is a signatory to the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement, disputes between the ALP and the Myanmar government are meant to be adjudicated by the Joint Monitoring Committee or the Joint Implementation Coordination Meeting and only sent to criminal courts as a last resort.
Neither body was involved in Khaing Myo Htun’s case, prompting him to remark after his sentencing that the judge’s verdict was also a verdict against the ceasefire agreement.
Nonetheless, the activist has no plans to appeal. He told his lawyer after the sentencing that he has lost faith in Myanmar’s judicial system.
“[This] verdict is yet another message from the government of Myanmar to the rest of the world that their interest in human rights isn’t even skin deep,” said David Baulk of Fortify Rights. “The government needs to drop its overly broad defamation laws and bring them in line with international standards to prevent more cases like this from happening in the future. At a moment when all eyes are on Myanmar, the government had an opportunity to do the right thing, and once again, failed.”
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