Myanmar filmmaker jailed for defaming military

YANGON, Myanmar

A prominent Myanmar filmmaker was sentenced to one year in jail on Thursday for defaming the military on social media.

Min Htin Ko Ko Gyi, founder of Myanmar’s Human Rights Human Dignity film festival, was arrested on April 12 after a military official accused him, under the country’s penal code, of defamation for his posts on Facebook critical of the military.

“The judge handed him one-year jail term,” his lawyer Robert San Aung told Anadolu Agency.

He added that the court has yet to decide whether to proceed or not with another complaint by the same military officer under the much criticized telecommunication law for the online defamation.

In a series of his posts on Facebook, Min Htin Ko Ko Gyi criticized the junta-drafted 2008 Constitution that gives military more broad authority in legislation and administration in Myanmar.

In a Facebook post that military mentioned to the court as evident, he described Defense Service Academy (DSA), one of three military elite training schools in the country, as a place giving birth to liars, thieves and murderers.

The filmmaker was diagnosed with liver cancer and underwent a major operation a few months before the arrest, however he was denied bail and forced to spend more than three months in Yangon’s Insein prison.

Human rights watchdog Amnesty International earlier this month called on the Myanmar authority to drop charges against the filmmaker immediately.

“Min Htin Ko Ko Gyi should be celebrated for his human rights work, not wallowing in prison without appropriate care,” said Nicholas Bequelin, the group’s Ease and Southeast Asia director.

Myanmar authorities have been accused of using a number of controversial repressive laws to prosecute activists and human rights defenders.