Familiar trial delays trouble family of Minbya Twsp man

29 Mar 2023

DMG Newsroom
29 March 2023, Minbya

The hearing for a local man who has been charged under Section 17(1) of the Unlawful Associations Act for alleged ties to the Arakan Army (AA) has been postponed for about eight months, according to family members.

The man has been identified as U Thein Zaw, 32, from Hnget Ye Kauk Village in Minbya Township. Captain Sit Min Naing from the military’s No. 828 logistics and transportation battalion filed a lawsuit against U Thein Zaw at the Sittwe Township Court on suspicion of having ties to the AA on March 2, 2022.

There are seven prosecution witnesses, including the plaintiff, and three defence witnesses in the case. Both sides made final appeals at a July 21 hearing and the court put delivery of a verdict on the docket for August.

But the judge has repeatedly postponed the trial in the months since, and family members of U Thein Zaw are demanding that the verdict be delivered as soon as possible.

“We went to the court hearings several times, but the judge did not deliver a final verdict. If he is guilty, the judge should deliver a verdict, and if he is not guilty, I would like him to be released as soon as possible,” said U Maung Soe Mya, the defendant’s father.

Most recently, the Sittwe Township Court was scheduled to deliver a verdict during a hearing on March 20, but rescheduled the hearing for April 3. Family members said the court’s excuse this time was that “the judge is studying the case in detail.”

Daw Soe Than Yi, the wife of U Thein Zaw, said she has travelled to numerous hearings expecting a verdict that has yet to be delivered, with those travels taking a toll financially. 

“He [U Thein Zaw] is the breadwinner in my family. Since his arrest, we have been facing livelihood hardships. Now my daughter is going to school, but I don’t have any money. I want him released as soon as possible,” she told DMG.

“The law stipulates that the judge must rule on the case as soon as possible after the final appeal,” said a lawyer who did not want to be named. “But the delay caused without such a judge’s ruling is detrimental to the accused.”

According to a DMG tally, the regime detained some 50 people during the latest period of fighting between the Myanmar military and Arakan Army, charging many of them under the Unlawful Associations Act, or with incitement under Section 505 of the Penal Code.

In another recent case, the verdict in a case against three men in Kyauktaw Township was scheduled for March 28, but the court instead scheduled another hearing for April 5 under the pretext that the final verdict had not yet been written.