The Sittwe Township court has sentenced four Rakhine university students to two years and six months in prison for protesting against the government and the military over human rights abuses in Rakhine State.

Kyaw Naing Htay, information officer of Sittwe Students Union, Than Naing, Joint Information Officer of Sittwe Students Union, Kaung Htun of the Rakhine Students' Union at Dagon University and Myat Soe Win of Kyaukphyu Education College were sentenced to six months in prison under Section 29 of the Disaster Management Law and two years in prison under Section 505 (b) of the Anti-Corruption Law.

Four university students stood trial by video conferencing.

“505 (b) provides for a maximum sentence of up to two years. I think they were sentenced about a year. They have been detained for almost 11 months. If they are sentenced to one year, they will be released in next month. When the court sentenced them to two years, I felt that the sentence was too high,” said lawyer Kyaw Nyunt Maung.

On October 19, 2020, the four protested against the military council in Sittwe, holding signs and posters reading “The colonial government. Fascist army is not wanted. No Bloody Government. No Murder Army. Burmese Government Get Out. Burmese Army Get Out."