Press Release of Myanmar President office on Lawyer U Ko Ni's murder
15th February 2017
Appendix Press Release (2) regarding the shooting
occurred at the Yangon International Airport
By REUTERS
The President’s Office on Wednesday said a former
military officer is suspected to have hired the killer of a prominent lawyer
advising Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi’s ruling party, in a likely bid to
destabilize the country.
The killing in January came at a time of renewed communal
and religious tension in Buddhist-majority Burma, where a civilian government
led by Suu Kyi has ruled for more than 10 months after a formal transition from
decades of military rule.
A heavy-handed sweep by security forces in Arakan State,
home to many Rohingya Muslims, has led to an estimated 69,000 from the largely
stateless community fleeing into neighbouring Bangladesh, the United Nations
estimates.
The adviser Ko Ni, 63, was a Muslim lawyer who was shot
in the head outside Rangoon’s international airport in a rare act of political
violence that rocked Burma’s commercial capital.
In a statement, the office of President Htin Kyaw said former
Lieutenant Colonel Aung Win Khaing, who retired from the army in 2014, was
suspected of paying his older brother 100 million kyats ($73,800) to murder Ko
Ni.
“Aung Win Khaing, who allegedly paid money for the crime
and is still on the run, used to work in the military as a lieutenant colonel
until 2014,” it said, adding that the 45-year-old left the army for personal
reasons.
Zaw Htay, a spokesman for the President’s Office,
confirmed the statement.
Reuters was unable to contact the suspect’s family for
comment and it was not clear if he had legal representation.
Burma’s military and police did not immediately respond
to requests for comment.
Closed-circuit television showed the former army officer
at the airport’s arrivals hall, checking flight schedules minutes before Ko Ni
was shot, the statement said.
Later, it said, he sent a text message with details of
the lawyer’s arrival gate to his older brother, Aung Win Zaw, citing the
testimony of the latter, who was detained within hours of the killing last
month.
Authorities have also detained a suspected gunman, named
by police as Kyi Linn, 53, after a group of taxi drivers chased him down. One
of the drivers was himself shot and killed.
The lawyer’s killing was probably motivated by the
“intention to destabilise the state,” the President’s Office said in January.
Burma’s national police chief has taken personal charge
of the investigation into the killing, police sources have told Reuters.