Myanmar: It’s prison for 9 more activists
YANGON, Myanmar – A court in military-ruled Myanmar has sentenced an additional nine pro-democracy activists to 65-year prison terms, relatives and activists said yesterday.Their cases are among a string of recent prison sentences given to critics of the ruling junta. About 70 opposition activists, writers, musicians and Buddhist monks have been sentenced in the last week.The nine activists of the 88 Generation Students group, named for their part in pro-democracy demonstrations in 1988, were sentenced at a closed trial inside Maupin Prison in the Irrawaddy Delta in southwestern Yangon on Tuesday.
Relatives of the nine only learned of the sentences yesterday when they visited them at Insein Prison, where they were brought from Maupin Prison to later be transferred to other prisons.”They told us all nine of them had been sentenced on Tuesday at a closed trial in Maupin Prison. They were told that they will be moved to other prisons,” said one relative, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation.Relatives said that none of the sentences were handed down with defense attorneys present.Most of the nine were arrested Aug. 21, 2007, along with other activists, for staging a street protest against a massive fuel-price increa
