Authors Maung Thar Cho and Htin Lin Oo sentenced to prison on incitement charges

By DMG 22 Feb 2022

DMG Newsroom
22 February 2022, Yangon

A special court in Yangon Region’s North Okkalapa Township on Tuesday sentenced two authors to prison on incitement charges, according to sources close to the court.

Maung Thar Cho was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment and fellow author Htin Lin Oo was sentenced to three years’ imprisonment under Section 505(a) of the Penal Code, a source close to the court told DMG.

The two were arrested by Myanmar’s military regime on February 1, 2021, the day it seized power in a coup, with the punishment ordered more than one year after the charges were filed.

They are in good health in prison, a source close to the men said.

“They are in good health. Nothing happened to them in detention apart from minor sickness,” the source said.

On February 13, a private literature teacher, U Myint Zaw (Shwe Daga) was sentenced to life in prison by the North Okkalapa Township special court under Section 50(j) of the Counter-Terrorism Law.

U Myint Zaw was arrested by the regime council in December at his home in North Okkalapa Township. He was charged with involvement in anti-regime protests in the township, and allegedly providing financial aid to the National Unity Government (NUG) and the affiliated People’s Defence Force (PDF).

He recently tested positive for Covid-19 and was sent to Yangon’s Insein Prison, according to sources close to him.