Myanmar’s High Court sentenced two lawyers from Aung San Suu Kyi’s pro-democracy party to four months each in prison for contempt of court, a party spokesman said yesterday.
Nyan Win said the jailing of Aung Thein and Khin Maung Shein, who have represented student activists in the courts, was a sign of increased pressure on the party from the ruling junta.
“U Aung Thein and U Khin Maung Shein were sentenced to four months imprisonment each by the High Court yesterday morning. They were taken from their homes last night,” Nyan Win said.
“Although they can appeal, U Aung Thein said he will not as he doesn’t recognize the sentence,” he said.
“We are in a difficult situation now as they [the lawyers] often represented political activists. This is strong pressure from the authorities,” Nyan Win said.
Aung Thein and Khin Maung Shein made their defense to the High Court in Myanmar’s main city Yangon on Thursday after receiving a letter last week that charged they had disrespected the court during an earlier trial of student activists.
The US State Department on Friday condemned Myanmar for charging lawyers defending student activists.
“These actions represent a blatant attempt by the regime to intimidate these lawyers and demonstrate its contempt for the rule of law,” US State Department deputy spokesman Robert Wood said in statement.
Wood demanded that Myanmar release another lawyer, Nyi Nyi Htwe, sentenced to six months in prison last week for disturbing court procedure, and stop the prosecution of another lawyer, Saw Kyaw Kyaw Min, who also faces possible prison time for contempt of court.
Aung Thein and Khin Maung Shein had represented nine detained student activists whose sentences were extended by six months last week for disturbing court procedure.
The National League for Democracy party, led by detained Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, won a landslide victory in 1990 elections but Myanmar’s military junta never allowed them to take office.
She has spent most of the intervening years under house arrest in the country, which has been ruled by the military since 1962.
Aung San Suu Kyi’s doctor Tin Myo Win and his assistant visited her in her lakeside prison home on Thursday for a medical checkup, two months after she refused food supplies, sparking concerns for her health.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
RSS