Arakan State High Court to rule on appeal seeking reduced sentences for four students facing 2.5 years in prison

By DMG 07 Dec 2021

DMG Newsroom
7 December 2021, Sittwe 

The Arakan State High Court will decide at an upcoming hearing whether to reduce the sentences of four students in Arakan State who are facing more than two years in prison for an October 2020 anti-war protest. 

The appeal in the case of the four Arakanese students, who were each sentenced to two years and six months in prison on September 16, was heard at the Arakan State High Court on Tuesday, according to a lawyer defending the students. 

A ruling will be handed down at the next court hearing but a date has not yet been set, said the lawyer, U Hla Aung Thein. 

“Today we had a final statement on the students’ case. It is not yet known when the order will be passed. The day to rule on the appeal will be announced in a week or two,” he said. 

Hla Aung Thein added that he had asked the court to reduce his clients’ sentences, and to allow the sentences to be served concurrently. The students were given two years in prison for incitement under Section 505(b) of the Penal Code, and an additional six months under the Natural Disaster Management Law. 

The four students — Ko Kyaw Naing Htay, Ko Oo Than Naing, Ko Mrat Soe Win and Ko Kaung Tun — were arrested for joining an anti-war demonstration in the Arakan State capital Sittwe on October 19, 2020, and were sentenced to the 30-month prison terms by the Sittwe Township Court. 

The Sittwe District Court rejected an appeal of the students’ case in September, but a subsequent appeal to the Arakan State High Court was accepted on November 9.