By Nan Hseng Phoo / Shan Herald Agency for News (Shan) / BNI Online | February 28, 2018

The Hopong Township Court has given one to ten years sentences to eight villagers for supporting and associating with the Restoration Council of Shan State/ Shan State Army – South (RCSS/SSA-S), which is a signatory of the nationwide ceasefire agreement (NCA).

The eight residents of Hopong Township from southern Shan State were sentenced under various charges on February 26 and transported to Taung Lay Lone Prison.

The Tatmadaw arrested the residents since mid-July, 2017, for having contacts with the Shan ethnic armed group RCSS/SSA-S and filed 12 charges against them as the plaintiff.

“They
[the judiciary] didn’t release anyone. The ruling was set down at 11 am yesterday (February 26). [The ruling] includes three-year, seven-year, one-year, and ten-year sentences. They [the residents] were immediately sent to Taung Lay Lone after the ruling was set down. The judge’s name is Su Yadanar Hlaing. I can’t say whether [the ruling] was fair or not, but it’s clear whether or not the public can trust and rely on the judiciary. The public can’t rely on the court anymore because they [the judiciary] have made such kind of ruling. They [the residents] could have been released in accord with the law, but they didn’t dare to release them. That’s why they sent everyone to prison,” the defense lawyer Sao Myawaddy told the Shan Herald Agency for News.

Twelve charges have been made against the eight villagers including an alleged possession of weapons as well as for trespassing on a military operations area. They faced additional charges under the import and export law, and the telecommunication law.

They have attended more than ten court hearings without the court setting down any rulings.

The eight residents of Nam Hkoke Village, Hopong Township, were detained by the Tatmadaw’s 225th and 249th Infantry Battalions (IB-225 and IB-249) on July 17, 2017 for not providing information about the RCSS/SSA-S.

RCSS/SSA-S is one of the eight ethnic armed groups that signed the NCA with the government and the Tatmadaw in October, 2015, and the government has also removed it from the list of unlawful associations.

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This article originally appeared on BNI Online on February 28, 2018.

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