A Myanmar court has sentenced nine pro-democracy activists already held in detention to six months in jail for disrupting their trial on other charges, a lawyer said yesterday.
Aung Thein, a lawyer working for the National League for Democracy (NLD) party, said it was the first time the nine, including well-known activists Min Ko Naing and Ko Ko Gyi, had faced a judge since their arrests in August last year for leading a march against a hike in fuel prices.
“Altogether nine people, including Min Ko Naing and Ko Ko Gyi, were sentenced yesterday by a divisional court for disturbing the court procedure,” Aung Thein said. “It was the first time they’d faced the court on the charges against them.”
It is unclear whether the six-month sentences will extend their overall jail time or be counted as part of their detention to date.
Aung Thein gave no further details of the disturbance in court that led to the sentencing, as he is not representing the activists.
Legal sources indicate the students, detained in Yangon’s notorious Insein prison, are now defending themselves, and for the past fortnight family members have been barred from attending their trials.
The nine were arrested in their homes in August last year after leading a rally against steep rises in fuel prices that preceded a larger monk-led uprising.
They are still awaiting sentence on various other unknown charges against them.
All nine detainees are former student leaders who have already served lengthy prison sentences over earlier protests against Myanmar’s regime.
Since their release from prison over the past three years, the former student leaders have breathed new life into the pro-democracy movement, which had been rudderless since the latest arrest of the NLD’s leader, Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi.
Aung San Suu Kyi helped lead the NLD to a landslide victory in 1990 elections, but the military did not recognize the results.
She has spent most of the intervening years under house arrest.
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