By THE IRRAWADDY 23 April 2018
NAYPYITAW & MANDALAY — The wife of a police officer
who told a court that police had entrapped two Reuters reporters said her
husband was a “scapegoat” and appealed for help from President Win Myint and
State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.
During a press conference in Mandalay on Sunday, Daw Tu
called for justice for her husband, Police Captain Moe Yan Naing, saying her
husband was “innocent.”
As a prosecution witness, the police officer testified on
Friday that the police had set
up Reuters reporters Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, while providing details
about the Dec. 12 arrest. https://lnkd.in/gDBtNtr
Moe Yan Naing also revealed that the “trap” was
masterminded by Police
Brig-Gen Tin Ko Ko. https://lnkd.in/g9d3Axn
The police captain has been detained since December last
year for his interaction with the reporters, who were working on a Reuters
investigation into the killing of 10 Rohingya Muslim men and boys in a village
in Rakhine state. The reporters were arrested under the colonial-era Official
Secrets Act, which carries a maximum penalty of 14 years in prison.
“My husband didn’t give any documents to them (Wa Lone
and Kyaw Soe Oo). Brig-Gen Tin Ko Ko scapegoated my husband,” Daw Tu Tu told
the reporters in Mandalay on Sunday. “He is innocent.”
Following the police captain’s testimony, authorities on
Saturday ordered the family to move out of a police housing complex where Daw
Tu and one of their young daughters were living.
“I don’t know where to go now,” Daw Tu told an Irrawaddy
reporter on Saturday after she received the eviction notice.
The eviction order went viral online, generating an angry
reaction and public condemnation of the police action. Police spokesman Myo Thu
Soe told the media on the same day that the family had to leave as they had
overstayed their tenancy since March. But he didn’t explain why the eviction
was enforced right after Moe Yang Naing’s testimony on Friday.
On Sunday, the unemployed woman told the media that her
family has had to rely on relatives to survive as her husband hasn’t received
his salary since being detained.
“We haven’t got his salary for four months. His salary is
the only income we have to live on,” she said. The couple has three children;
the eldest is a university student.
After Moe Yan Naing’s revelation of a police set-up and
the alleged involvement of Brig-Gen Tin Ko Ko during the court hearing on
Friday, the plaintiff’s lawyer submitted a motion seeking to have the police
captain declared a ‘hostile witness.’
The court will decide whether to accept the motion on
Wednesday.
For now, Daw Tu said all could she do was appeal to the
country’s top political leadership for help.
“Mr. President, State Counselor, please don’t let us
down. We are helpless,” she said on Sunday.