New Delhi (Mizzima) – Khantee prison political prisoner and student activist Di Nyein Lin is suffering from eye disease, his mother, who was permitted to see him on May 3, said.

A leader of the All Burma Federation of Student Unions’ activists during demonstrations led by Buddhist monks in 2007 known as the Saffron Revolution, Di Nyein Lin in 2008 was arrested by the junta and placed on a variety of charges, including one of “inducing crime against public tranquility”.

He was sentenced to a total of 15 years and six months in prison in November 2008, two weeks after his father, Zaw Zaw Min, became one of 23 members of the 88 Generation Students jailed for 65 years. His grandfather Saw Win was a member of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi’s now defunct National League for Democracy (NLD) party who died in prison about 12 years ago.

“He says his eyes hurt and that he can’t read books. We had ‘power’ glasses made for him but he still suffers from the pain,” Di Nyein Lin’s mother Htay Htay told Mizzima. “We thought he might have a bulbous growth on the end of his nose, but my son says his eyes still ache and he feels dizzy.”

During the Saffron Revolution, the students group was revamped. Di Nyein Lin was a final-year geology student at the University of West Rangoon in 2007. After the protests, he evaded arrest until he was caught in Rangoon in October 2008. The students carried on their crusade against the military dictatorship underground as the junta had banned student unions.