Ko Aung Naing said they were arrested on Nov.10, in the evening, after quarreling with a tea shop owner in Kyauk Myaung in Tamwe Township.

“We had an argument with the shop owner when he wouldn’t put the football game on the television.”

The owner called the police. At the police station the duty officer asked their names and where they were from. When Ko Aung Naing told them that he was just a student from Arakan State and his friend Ko Nay Tun Aung was a sailor they beat them up. 

“He beat me more because he knew that I am a former political prisoner,” said Ko Aung Naing.

Ko Aung Naing was released from prison on July 3 after he and 10 other Arakanese youth were convicted in 2009 for connections to the All Arakan Student and Youth Congress exile group.

“They told us to come back to the police station so they can (formally) charge us and send us to court”, said Ko Nay Aung Tun.

The men reported the incident to U Zaw Aye Maung, the minister of Rakhine (Arakanese) National Race Affairs in Rangoon Division.