KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — A court in Myanmar sentenced an American citizen on Wednesday to five years in prison and hard labor on charges of carrying a forged identity card and two other offenses.
The American, Nyi Nyi Aung, a naturalized citizen who has spent two decades campaigning for democracy in his native Myanmar, formerly Burma, will be allowed to serve the three prison terms concurrently, cutting down the actual prison time to three years. Mr. Nyi Nyi Aung’s lawyers said they would appeal, and human rights groups called the charges phony.
Richard Mei, a spokesman for the United States Embassy in Myanmar, said the verdict was “unjustified” and urged the Burmese authorities to release him.
“We believe the charges were politically motivated,” Mr. Mei said, reading from a prepared statement. He declined to discuss what other steps the United States might take.
The Obama administration has maintained longstanding sanctions against Myanmar but has also sought to engage the country’s ruling generals, and last year it sent senior diplomats to meet with the leadership.
Freedom Now, an American human rights group that lobbies for the release of political prisoners, urged the Obama administration to make Mr. Nyi Nyi Aung’s release “a priority” in its relations with Myanmar.
Mr. Nyi Nyi Aung, who was born Kyaw Zaw Lin, was sentenced to three years for forging a national identity card, one year for possession of undeclared foreign currency and one year for failing to renounce his Burmese citizenship after becoming an American citizen in 2002.
He is one of more than 2,100 dissidents jailed in Myanmar for their opposition to the military government, one of the most brutal and uncompromising governments in Asia. Hundreds of dissidents were arrested after street protests led by monks in September 2007, and many were sentenced to prison terms in excess of 60 years.
Mr. Nyi Nyi Aung, 40, was arrested on his arrival at the airport in Yangon, Myanmar’s main city, in September. Although he had visited the country several times since becoming an American citizen and had obtained a visa from the Burmese government each time, colleagues and friends said the trip in September was risky because he had been publicly singled out by the junta after the 2007 protests.
His mother, Daw San San Tin, was detained for her involvement in those protests, and he hoped to visit her in prison, family members say. She has thyroid cancer and is serving a five-year term in a remote prison in Meiktila in central Myanmar.
Source :http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/11/world/asia/11myanmar.html
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