Moe Yan Naing, the whistleblower cop jailed for violating the Police Disciplinary Code after testifying in court that plainclothes police had entrapped two Reuters reporters, was released earlier today after nine months in Yangon’s Insein Prison.
His release, initially expected on Jan. 2, was postponed after prison officials told the family they had miscalculated his release date.
Outside Insein Prison today, his family welcomed him with open arms. Speaking to a scrum of reporters, he reasserted his innocence and called for the Police Disciplinary Code to be amended to better reflect Myanmar’s ongoing democratic transition.
“The Police Disciplinary Act is not in line with other laws. This act should be amended while the country is transitioning to democracy,” he told reporters, according to Frontier Myanmar.
Moe Yan Naing went on to insist he had been imprisoned on the orders of Police Brigadier General Tin Ko Ko, the same senior official who ordered his subordinates to “get” Reuters journalist Wa Lone by planting sensitive documents on he and his partner, who were arrested outside a restaurant in Northern Yangon shortly thereafter.
Wa Lone and Kyaw So Oo were reporting on the massacre of 10 Rohingya boys and men during the brutal military campaign in August 2017 that drove 730,000 Rohingya Muslims into neighboring Bangladesh.
Both were convicted and sentenced to seven years in prison last September for violating the Official Secrets Act in a trial criticized for its lack of due process and objectivity. The appeal of their sentences in a downtown Yangon court earlier this month was denied.
While Moe Yan Naing’s own presence during the August 2017 massacre was public knowledge (if rarely mentioned)e, rights groups, activists and journalists have praised his staunch defense of the truth.
On Dec. 22, PEN Myanmar awarded him the “Outstanding Protector of Freedom of Expression” for his bravery in speaking truth to power.
