Kachin Facebook activist’s health deteriorating

YANGON — The wife of a Kachin man on trial for deeming to have defamed the military for a Facebook post has said she is concerned about his health.

Patrick Khum Jaa Lee was arrested last month after being accused of sharing a Facebook photo of a man in a Kachin-style longyi standing on a photo of Commander-in-chief Senior-General Min Aung Hlaing. He is being charged under article 66(d) of the 2013 Telecommunications Law, which carries a maximum sentence of three years in jail.

“He is very depressed and we are praying for his health,” said his wife, Kachin activist Ma May Sabe Phyu, who also said that he has been admitted to the hospital inside Insein Jail.

“There are many problems with the judicial system in our country. The law is like a rubber band and the authorities use it in their own ways as they wish,” she said of the fact that he has been denied bail.

The next hearing is on November 23.

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