A Myanmar court has jailed a woman for six months for a Facebook post
"ridiculing" the country's army chief and the colour of a new uniform.
Chaw
Sandi Tun, a member of Aung San Suu Kyi's election-winning National
League for Democracy (NLD) party, was found guilty under a new
telecommunications law prohibiting the use of the telecoms network to
"extort, threaten, obstruct, defame, disturb, inappropriately influence
or intimidate".
Her mother, Ei San, said: "My daughter was
sentenced to six months' imprisonment at Ma U Bin township court this
morning under Section 66(d) of the telecoms law. We will appeal as we
are not satisfied."
Chaw
Sandi Tun's post compared the light green new uniform for army officers
with that of a "longyi", a traditional Myanmar skirt worn by opposition
icon Suu Kyi.
"If you love mother that much, why don't you wrap mother's longyi on your head?" the post said. The
maximum penalty she faced was three years in jail. Her lawyer confirmed
the sentence but said his client denied making the post.
Military rule
"She
said her Facebook account had been hacked several times and that she
didn't post that post," Robert San Aung told reporters. Chaw Sandi
Tun was arrested in October. The same month, Patrick Kum Jaa Lee, an
NGO worker, was also arrested for a Facebook post that mocked the army.
Myanmar
has been ruled by a quasi-civilian government since 2011 following five
decades of military rule and has been widely praised for ushering in a
series of economic and political reforms. But in recent months
critics have accused the military and government of returning to
junta-era tactics, with arrests over social media posts.

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