Burmese Language
DVB reporter gets 8 year jail term
A man arrested by Burmese authorities for photographing the aftermath of the deadly bombings in Rangoon in April this year has been sentenced to eight years imprisonment.
Sithu Zeya, 21, a reporter for the Democratic Voice of Burma, was yesterday found guilty by Rangoon’s Mingalartaungnyunt township court of illegal border crossing and holding ties to an unlawful organisation. He was arrested shortly after the April bombings and has been held by police since.
“I am sad that he’s now ended up prison for taking some photos,” said his mother Yee Yee Tin. “He just finished school and had not even started working yet. He is interested in journalism, that the only thing I know.”
Sithu’s father, Maung Maung Zeya, also a DVB reporter, was arrested a day after his son and is still awaiting a verdict, but from a high-level court. Yee Yee Tin said that she was expecting his sentencing to be harsher.
Sithu is facing a further charge under the Electronics Act, which can result in up to 20 years in prison. The family’s legal advisor, Aung Thein, said that none of the accusations were supported by strong evidence.
“The prosecutors couldn’t provide any independent evidence for the accusations on [Sithu Zeya’s] illegal border crossing and contact with the individuals of the so-called ‘unlawful association.’ The verdict was based on informal confession results from torturing the accused while he was under interrogation,” said Aung Thein.
Sithu Zeya was arrested on 15 April after taking photographs of the bombing at X20 pavilion during Rangoon’s Thingyan Water Festival. Nine people died in the incident, which was the worst attack in Rangoon since 2005. It preceded a number of other bombings around Burma, focused mainly on controversial hydropower projects.
Maung Maung Zeya remains in detention in Rangoon’s Insein prison and is due to appear in court today. Maung Maung Zeya is the son of renowned late writer Linyon Maung Maung.
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When will these people with half a brain realize that the quest for freedom can never be subdued.
Ah … well, they are too ill-educated to realize that.
Too many of them do not know history.
Taking pictures of a human interest story has you put inside for holding ties to an unlawful organisation. Thitsaphout Than Shwe hasn’t worked out he’s holding ties to an unlawful organisation. He has been illegally holding power in Burma for years. Unless I have completely miss understand the meaning of human rights abuse, I think torture murder rape slavery and child prostitution is illegal and these crimes against humanity have been carried out by an unlawful organisation. Therefore Thitsaphout Than Shwe and his crooks must be punished for holding ties to an unlawful organisation.
I don’t quite understand why DVB explicitly mentioned both him and his father as ” a DVB reporter.” While “the verdict was based on informal confession” resulted from torture, this article confirmed that they indeed are working for an “unlawful organization.” It may be that DVB is honoring them by telling the world that they indeed have been working for DVB, a pro-democracy station on a higher moral ground. However,revealing about it even before the father had been sentenced provide legal support to the junta. Imagine yourself to be a lawyer representing the father in the court. How will you feel? I fully understand that the court will do what they are told to do by the regime. But was the urge to reveal their identities ever subjected to careful restrait? Or was it let out with a desire to quickly grasp heroic credit emanating from their deeds?
A country that allegedly had a lawful election, and claim to be bringing political changes, and is part of ASEAN, sentences someone for taking a photograph. Burma should either get its $hit together or should be kicked out of ASEAN if ASEAN is to claim any respectability and being a law-abiding treaty. Why should a country be allowed to be part of a convention when it absolutely does not respect basic human rights? The whole of Burmese political system is a sham and it should be treated as such.