A committee set up to push for the release of political prisoners will consider lobbying on behalf of five staff from Unity journal who were sentenced to 10 years’ jail with hard labour earlier this month.
The journal’s chief executive officer and four reporters were sentenced by Pakokku District Court on July 10 for breaking the 1923 State Secrets Act for reporting on a military factory in Magwe Region.
U Nyo Tun, a member of the Remaining Political Prisoner Scrutiny Committee and the Former Political Prisoners Society (FPPS), said he would raise their case at the committee’s next meeting.
“I think we should classify them as political prisoners because they were working for the interest of the people, not for their own sake,” he said. “The leaders of the committee and other members should classify them as political prisoners.”
The sentencing of the Unity journalists has been widely criticised by media freedom and rights groups at home and abroad. The journalists had published an article in January alleging that the factory was producing chemical weapons with Chinese assistance, although the government insists this was not the case.
Last week Daw Aung San Suu Kyi also criticised the sentencing and urged a review of the case. She questioned the way the case was handled and why the government was clamping down on media freedom at a time when it as supposed to be on the road to democracy.
U Nyo Tun said the committee will also consider the case of 50 journalists who are likely to be charged for staging a silent protest against attacks on media freedom during President U Thein Sein’s visit to the Myanmar Peace Center on July 12. Kamaryut township police have reportedly said they plan to charge them under section 18 of the peaceful protest law, which carries a potential six-month jail term.
“We will also discuss what we can do for those 50 journalists,” U Nyo Tun said.
While hundreds of political prisoners have been released from prison since U Thein Sein came to office, more are still being arrested under the Emergency Provisions Act, peaceful protest law and Penal Code.
The committee has confirmed there are 33 political prisoners and more than 100 politically motivated cases before the courts.
However, as The Myanmar Times reported last week, the committee’s meetings since the end of 2013, when government claimed to have achieved its goal of freeing all political prisoners, have been infrequent. The last took place on June 1, and members said they expect the next will be in August.
At the meeting they will also discuss the case of five monks arrested and charged following a raid on Mahasantisukha Monastery in Tarmwe township.
http://www.mmtimes.com/index.php/national-news/11049-unity-five-are-political-prisoners-committee-member-says.html
No comments: