A Myanmar regime’s court has sentenced 62 Muslims (Rohingyas) to five years in prison each who were detained in Ngapudaw Township in the waters off Hainggyi Island in the first week of May this year.
“The sentence was handed down based on the findings of the relevant immigration and police authorities. The detained Rohingyas were not allowed to invoke the law, and five-year prison terms are simply too much,” said a lawyer.
The lawyer went on to say that the 62 Muslims (Rohingyas) who were arrested and sentenced to prison terms were originally from Buthidaung, Maungdaw, and Sittwe in Arakan State, and they were deprived of their citizenship rights.
On 5 May, they – 50 men and 12 women – were chased and arrested by a Myanmar junta naval vessel from the Hainggyi Island naval base near the island.
Sources close to the military council’s court in Ngapudaw Township said they were detained on 31 May under Section 63 of the Registration Act.
A member of a local Muslim social aid group pointed out that among the 62 detained Muslims (Rohingya) were eight children under the age of 18, who were also sentenced to five years in prison, as the children will be separated from their parents and taken to a juvenile detention center.
“When they (the Rohingyas) were arrested, their phones and cash were confiscated by the navy, and they have not yet returned them. The organization that keeps their belongings has to hand them over to the local Muslim religious organization or mosque. The local mosque had to feed them during their detention because the relevant authorities could not afford to feed them,” said a member of the local Muslim social aid group.
Most of the detained Muslims were refugees living in refugee camps in Sittwe, Buthidaung and Maungdaw. They were chased and arrested in the waters off Hainggyi Island as they traveled by boat to Malaysia in search of job opportunities.
Earlier, on 19 April, the regime’s navy arrested more than 70 Muslims (Rohingyas) fleeing refugee camps in Myanmar’s western Arakan state in the waters off Ngayokaung town.
They were charged under Section 63(a) of the Registration Act and sentenced to two years in prison each on 25 April.
Sent by NMG