Closing arguments were postponed in the case of five men from Ponnagyun Township’s Kyaukseik village and nearby who were detained in 2020 on suspicion of ties to the Arakan Army (AA), after the judge failed to show up for a court hearing on Thursday, according to a lawyer for the defendants.
Prosecution and defence lawyers were scheduled to present their closing arguments at the Sittwe District Court on Thursday, but proceedings were put off until the next court hearing on April 28 after the judge failed to appear, lawyer U Kyaw Nyunt Maung told DMG.
A total of 38 people from Kyaukseik village and its vicinity were detained by the military on April 19, 2020. Thirty-three were released the following day but the other five remained in custody and were subsequently charged under the Counter-Terrorism Law for alleged links to the Arakan Army ethnic armed group.
A video of the five villagers being beaten during interrogation by Myanmar military soldiers on board a naval vessel was shared widely on social media in May of 2020.
The five men are Ko Nyi Nyi Aung, Ko Aung Myo Lin, and Ko Maung Chay, all 24 years old and from Kyaukseik village; Ko Min Soe, 38, from Ponnagyun town; and Ko Kyaw Win Hein, 22, from Zeebingyi village in Mrauk-U Township. They have been on trial for nearly two years, and family members have repeatedly asked the presiding judge, who was absent on Thursday, to speed up the legal proceedings.
Their trial has faced repeated delays and most family members did not attend Thursday’s hearing due to financial constraints, following numerous trips to the courthouse in the Arakan State capital Sittwe, said Daw Sein Win Phyu, the mother of Ko Min Soe.
“It has been two years and we are cash-strapped to attend the trial,” she explained. “We don’t understand why the trial has been delayed for so long. The AA has been removed from the list of terrorist organisations. But our sons are not yet freed.”
Myanmar’s military regime pardoned more than 1,600 prisoners on April 17 to mark the Buddhist New Year (Thingyan), but detainees facing trial for alleged AA ties were not among those released, according to human rights monitors.
