The Maungdaw Township High Court on Thursday arbitrarily sentenced 17 innocent Rohingyas to five-year imprisonment without a fair trial, according to a report by a reliable source. These 17 people are of many innocent Rohingyas that have fallen victims to the mass arbitrary arrests by Myanmar’s authority. Especially Border Guard Police (BGP) has started arresting innocent people in northern Maungdaw since late September in relation to a non-existent armed group. Since then, according to many reliable sources, the BGP has tortured at least 10 innocent people to the death in the detention without trial or judicial proceeding. An eyewitness that observed the case in the court says “17 innocent Rohingyas were sentenced to five-year imprisonment under Section 13/1 “Illegal Border Crossing” around 2:00PM on October 27. They are some of many innocent Rohingyas that the Border Guard Police (BGP) have arrested since late September 2014 under the false accusation of having links with *RSO. An accused victim, Kyaw Myint @ Mufizur Rahman (son of) Basa Meah, Age 42, hails from Bandula (Aantala Battala) village argued that he had never crossed the border nor had seen the other country (i.e. Bangladesh). Upon that, the (Buddhist) judge blatantly replied that he had sentenced them because they live at the Myanmar-Bangladesh Border. The BGP, the plaintiffs, either, were not able to provide any evidence in favor of their accusation against the defending victims. They were provided neither a lawyer for defense nor any chance of fair trial. It was absolutely unfair and one-sided trial. But the court proceeded to sentence them as per the wish of the BGP because in our country, those who have arms rule.” The BGP, the plaintiffs, either, were not able to provide any evidence in favor of their accusation against the defending victims. They were provided neither a lawyer for defense nor any chance of fair trial. It was absolutely unfair and one-sided trial. But the court proceeded to sentence them as per the wish of the BGP because in our country, those who have arms rule.” The families or the relatives of the victims were allowed to go into the court for the case hearing. The arbitrary judgment is also totally against the 2008 Constitution of Myanmar. He continued saying “there are six more people in the police’s detention who have not been sentenced yet. Their relatives can’t visit the detention and see them. They are also likely to be sentenced under the same section soon. They are really worried. The legal section 13/1 “Illegal Border Crossing” is not applied against any other ethnic minorities especially Buddhists. However, it has been a notorious legal section under which thousands of innocent Rohingyas have been imprisoned over the years. The government apply the section against them when travel from a state to a state and a township to another. **RSO= Rohingya Solidarity Organization RSO is a former Rohingya armed group that has been disbanded long ago. Bangladesh government has officially announced that it is no longer existent today. Burma Experts on Minorities’ Armed Groups, Bertil Linter, has denied any such existence of RSO. Now, Rakhine extremists and Myanmar Government have started to spread propaganda that militants from RSO (Rohingya Solidarity Organization), are infiltrating into Myanmar so as to be able to scapegoat and kill even more innocent Rohingyas to achieve their respective political goals. rvisiontv/myanmars-govt-arbitrarily-imprison-17-innocent-rohingyas/
Posted on: Sat, 01 Nov 2014 06:43:39 +0000