Burma: activist detained for protesting
Event- Country
- Myanmar
- Initial Date
- Jul 10, 2013
- Event Description
Mr. Wai Phyoi, Secretary of the NGO Generation Wave, was allegedly arrested by the Chief of Pyay Township police station in Bago Region at 11:30 a.m. on 10 July 2013. He was arrested at a hotel called Sweet Golden Land in Pyay, where he was running a Sustainable Development workshop. It is also alleged that the police came to the hotel and recorded the training and, after it was finished, asked him to go with them for a cold drink and took him to the police station where they arrested him. The police allegedly arrested him for a "Free Political Prisoners" poster campaign, which he organized in July 2011, charging him under the 1962 Printing and Publications Registrations Act for distributing unlawful printed documents. The campaign was organized in several cities, with Mr. Wai Phyoi leading the campaign in Pyay. Two other members of Generation Wave had previously been arrested in July 2011 in relation to the poster campaign and sentenced to three months imprisonment in February 2012. The warrant for the arrest of Mr. Wai Phyoi had been outstanding since then. Following Mr. Wai Phyoi's arrest on 10 July, police took him to Pyay Township court and asked permission from the judge to detain him for interrogation for two weeks. He was taken to the court again on 12 July and his lawyers applied for bail, which the judge denied. He is currently in Pyay prison, Bago Region. He will reportedly appear in court on 25 July 2013 for prosecution. 16/07/2013- JUA sent by the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar; the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention; the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression; the Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association; and the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders. 15/08/2013- Burmese government's response.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention
- Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of assembly
- Right to Protest
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Not active
- Event Location
Latitude: 18.816666699999995
Longitude: 95.21666670000002
- Event Location
- Summary for Publications
On 10 July 2013, Wai Phyoi, Secretary of the NGO Generation Wave, was arrested on charges of distributing printed documents which is considered unlawful under the 1962 Printing and Publications Registrations Act. The charges were in connection to his July 2011 protest against the detention of a number of political prisoners; his warrant had been outstanding since that time. UPDATE 16/07/2013- Letter sent by numerous UN Special Rapporteurs to the government of Myanmar. 15/08/2013- Burmese government's response.