The Thandwe district court passed the verdict on 21 October against Ko Min Naing (alias Nga Pru) and Ko Naing Thu, said a lawyer based in Thandwe town.
Both the convicts were sentenced to 15 years and two months imprisonment for the offence against the 15 year old Rakhine girl from Taungup, a southern town of Arakan State.
It may be mentioned that Ko Min Naing is a taxi driver and he proposed the victim girl for a lift to a hotel for staying the night of June 29, 2003 as there was no bus from the Thandwe bus station to her town.
The girl was waiting for the return bus to her Taungup residence, but it was late and hence under compulsion the girl accepted the proposal.
Accordingly the girl accompanied the taxi driver and his friend Naing Thu in the vehicle for the hotel. After traveling few minutes, the taxi driver stopped the vehicle in an abandon spot and then both of them prevailed over the girl.
The victim’s family filed a lawsuit in the next morning. The police with the clues from the girl arrested both the accused individuals.
The judge pronounced 15 years of imprisonment to them under section act 366 and 367 for rape cases, informed the lawyer adding that two more months were included under a specific religious act.
Mentionable is that soon after the incident of rape, a riot broke out in Thandwe where the Buddhists and Muslims targeted each other.
The violence left at least 36 houses, one clinic, one chicken husbandry stall and three motorbikes were destroyed.
