Myanmar's former information minister, U Yatu, has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for allegedly publishing posts on Facebook that spread false or inflammatory news.
The 64-year-old often uses social media as a platform to criticize the Myanmar military.
Since the military overthrew elected State Councilor Aung San Suu Kyi in 2021, Myanmar has carried out a fierce crackdown on ***.
A former senior Myanmar military officer who served as information minister and spokesman for a former military-backed company was convicted of sedition, a law firm said Thursday. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Wu Yetu is a retired lieutenant colonel who is the latest in a series of people who have been imprisoned for writing posts on Facebook for allegedly spreading false or inflammatory news. Such legal actions have been proliferating since the military seized power from Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's democratically elected** in February 2021.
He reportedly took a complaint against him at the end of October** after an officer from the Yangon Regional Military Command filed a complaint against him, just as some senior officers were being purged on other charges such as corruption. He was convicted on Wednesday, but he insisted on anonymity for fear of being punished by the authorities, according to **, who is familiar with the legal process.
Uyetu served as Thein Sein**'s spokesman for the military's support from 2013 to 2016 and as Minister of Information from 2014 to 2016.
After leaving in 2016, Wu Yetu began working as a political commentator, writing books and publishing articles on Facebook. He was a visiting senior fellow at the iseas-yusof ishak institute in Singapore.
According to a detailed list compiled by the Political Prisoners Aid Association, a monitoring group based in Thailand, at least 25,474 civilians have been killed in Myanmar's military** crackdown on the opposition.