Prominent jailed activist on hunger strike over Presidential Protection Bill

Prominent jailed activist on hunger strike over Presidential Protection Bill



YANGON: -- The Irrawaddy reported that political prisoner Naw Ohn Hla began a prison hunger strike on Tuesday to protest proposed legislation that would grant wide-ranging legal immunity for ex-presidents’ conduct in office.

The 53-year-old democracy activist has been frequently imprisoned for her advocacy of causes ranging from peace and justice to the release of political prisoners in Burma over the past two decades.

She is currently serving time for a Dec 29, 2014 protest in front of the Chinese Embassy in Rangoon following the death of a woman in Letpadaung about one week earlier.

She was sentenced last year to six years and two months’ imprisonment for that protest. She and several fellow protesters had urged the government to carry out an investigation into the killing of Khin Win, who was shot dead on Dec 22, 2014, by police at the Chinese-back Letpadaung copper mine in Monywa, Sagaing Division.

Min Nay Htoo, a spokesperson for the network, told The Irrawaddy that he had received a message from her through other labour rights activists who are standing trial and appeared at a court hearing he attended on Wednesday.

“She has refused to eat the food given to her since Jan. 5, as she opposes the Former President’s Protection Bill,” the spokesperson said.

Source: http://englishnews.thaipbs.or.th/prominent-jailed-activist-on-hunger-strike-over-presidential-protection-bill


-- Thai PBS 2016-01-07