On April 14 at 8.50pm, the owner of Facebook account Nyan Lin Htat Referee claimed Aung San Suu Kyi and her government were not following their own measures to control Covid-19, such as a ban on mass gatherings.
Along with the Union Solidarity Development Party, they are “just doing what they want,” read the post. “If you want to arrest me for speaking the truth, go ahead.”
The government obliged.
Now the account owner faces up to 20 years in jail and a fine under section 124(a) of the Penal Code, a sedition charge which criminalises bringing “hatred or contempt” against Myanmar’s government as well as any message that “excites or attempts to excite disaffection” towards it.
Kyaw Kyaw Lin, the administrator of Ayeyarwady region’s Kyangin township, reported the Facebook post to the regional government, according to the Daily Eleven.
Through the regional government, senior Union leaders ordered the administrator to file the lawsuit against the account holder at the township court, rather than a police station, National League for Democracy regional Hluttaw MP Thaw Zin Win told the newspaper.
The politician said there was a “risk of conflict” between the account holder and the public, who were “not satisfied” by the posts.
In September 2018, former newspaper columnist Ngar Min Swe was jailed for seven years under the same charge over a Facebook post criticising Aung San Suu Kyi.
