Myanmar opposition leaders get long jail terms: relatives

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YANGON (AFP) — One of Myanmar's most prominent activists was sentenced to 65 years in jail along with two other pro-democracy leaders in connection with the 2007 anti-junta protests, family members said Saturday.

Min Ko Naing is considered Myanmar's top activist after detained Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi and was a founder member of an opposition group that emerged from a failed student-led uprising in 1988.

Relatives said it had emerged that he was among 23 members of the so-called "88 Generation" who received heavy jail terms on Tuesday this week at the notorious Insein prison on the outskirts of Yangon.

Leading activists Ko Ko Gyi and Htay Kywe were also in the same batch who received the sentences from a closed court at the prison, family members said after visiting the jail on Saturday.

"We got a chance to see them in Insein prison this afternoon after we were told (after visiting another prison) that they were taken back to Yangon," a family member told AFP on condition of anonymity.

"They were sentenced on Tuesday to 65 years imprisonment each," the family member said, adding that they were found guilty on charges including violating the electronic act and for contempt of court."

Min Ko Naing and Ko Ko Gyi spent up to 15 years in jail as what rights group Amnesty International described as "prisoners of conscience" for their roles in the 1988 uprising.


"I feel really sorry for them as they have already served at least a decade in prison so now they have to stay there for most of their lifetime," the family member said.

Separately, a female journalist arrested while reporting on Cyclone Nargis in May, Ein Khaing Oo, was sentenced to two years in jail while a male colleague received seven years, legal sources said.

Further details on their cases were not immediately available. More than 139,000 people were left dead or missing after Nargis struck.

Courts in Myanmar in the past week jailed between 60 and 70 people over last year's protests against the military regime, which were followed by a crackdown that the United Nations said left at least 31 people dead.

They include a prominent blogger, a poet, nine monks, and at least 28 members of Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party.

Rights groups have accused the generals of trying to curb dissent ahead of elections in 2010 which the junta says are part of its "roadmap" to democracy.