Publishers sentenced to two-years over AA calendar reference

20 November 2019
Publishers sentenced to two-years over AA calendar reference

A court in Ayeyarwady region sentenced two Rakhine publishers and two other men to two years in prison each for publishing a Rakhine calendar with terminology used by the Arakan Army, according to a RFA report.

Regional police arrested Thein Aung Myat, publisher of the Rakhine Rakhita calendar, his aide Kaung Myat Thu, a man who acted as their guide, and their taxi driver on April 6 as they sold the calendars in Haigyi Island in Ngapudaw township. Authorities also confiscated the car they were traveling in.

The four men were charged under Section 17(1) of the country’s colonial-era Unlawful Associations Act because the calendars allegedly had terminologies used by an insurgent group. The law carries a prison sentence for those who interact with an illegal group such as an armed ethnic organization.

The men were arrested because the calendar included the words “Arakan Army Day.”