Ponnagyun court to hear arguments on charging of five Kyaukseik villagers early next year

By DMG 27 Dec 2021

DMG Newsroom
27 December 2021, Ponnagyun 

The Ponnagyun Township Court in Arakan State will hear arguments at a hearing scheduled for January 5 to decide whether five Kyaukseik villagers should be officially charged with terrorism, according to a lawyer involved in the case. 

Examination of the investigating officer from the Ponnagyun police station concluded at the latest hearing, on December 27, and the court will hear arguments at the next hearing, said the lawyer, U Hla Aung Thein. 

The Tatmadaw arrested 38 Kyaukseik villagers on April 19, 2020. It subsequently released 33 of them, but 24-year-olds Ko Nyi Nyi Aung, Ko Aung Myo Lin and Ko Maung Chay, along with Ko Min Soe (38) and Ko Kyaw Win Hein (22), have since faced charges under Myanmar’s Counter-Terrorism Law. 

A video showing military personnel punching and kicking the five villagers on a boat during interrogation spread on social media in May of last year. That same month, the military announced that it would take legal action against those who had abused the five detainees in the video. 

Captain Tint Naing Tun from Ponnagyun-based Light Infantry battalion No. 550 filed a lawsuit against the five villagers under Sections 50(j) and 52(a) of the Counter-Terrorism Law on April 23, 2020, for alleged links to the Arakan Army (AA), which at the time was a designated terrorist group in the eyes of the Myanmar government. The charges carry a maximum sentence of life in prison. 

The five men have been on trial for more than 18 months. Family members hope they will be released at the next court hearing. 

“I hope our sons will not be charged because they are innocent. So, I believe they will be released on that day,” said Daw Ni Ni Aye, the mother of Ko Nyi Nyi Aung. 

Arakan State civil society organisations have argued that all Counter-Terrorism Law cases brought against individuals like the Kyaukseik five should be dropped since the Arakan Army has been de-listed as a terrorism group for more than nine months. 

Myanmar’s military regime has withdrawn some of the Arakan State cases prosecuted under the Counter-Terrorism Law since it removed the Arakan Army from its list of terrorist organisations on March 11 of this year. But several notable cases, such as that of the Kyaukseik villagers, have not yet been dropped by the junta.