At 71, Ousted NLD Chief Minister Gets 29 Yrs In Jail

Myanmar’s junta has sentenced ousted Mandalay Regional chief minister Dr Zaw Myint Maung to an additional three years in prison. The 71-year-old now faces 29 years in prison. A prison court in Mandalay sentenced him under electoral fraud charges, according to the defendant’s legal team. “This is the final charge against him. We are now planning to appeal against all his sentences,” his lawyer said, adding that the chief minister is in good health despite needing treatment for leukemia. In mid-June, Dr Zaw Myint Maung, who is also vice-chair of the National League for Democracy (NLD), was sentenced to 21 years in jail on five counts of corruption. In early June, he was also sentenced to one year in prison for alleged electoral fraud over the 2020 general election. In December, a junta court handed down four years for breaching COVID-19 regulations. He was jailed for 19 years by former military regimes for his activism, reports The Irrawaddy. By May, 917 NLD members had been detained since the February 1, 2021, coup, according to the party. Of those, 701 members, 98 of them elected lawmakers, are still in junta custody. Eighteen party members and a lawmaker have died in custody.