Traders Hotel bomber gets life sentence

YANGON — A man has been sentenced to life in prison for planting a bomb that exploded in a luxury Yangon hotel two years ago and injured an American woman, AFP newsagency reported on July 5 quoting state media.

Saw Myint Lwin, 29, was convicted in Yangon’s Western District Court on July 3 of having planted two explosive devices in the city, one of which exploded in Traders Hotel on October 11, 2013, The Mirror reported. “Saw Myint Lwin confessed that he acted alone,” Kyemon reported, without giving a motive for the bombings.

The unnamed American woman was hospitalised with wounds to her thigh and hand after a small, improvised device exploded in her room at the hotel, since rebranded the Sule Shangri-La. Saw Myint Lwin was arrested days after the blast. Police said he had stayed in the room where the bomb was placed.

Two other men were acquitted of planting bombs, The Mirror reported.

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