PATHEIN, Irrawaddy Division — A high school teacher in Irrawaddy Division has been sentenced to 40 years in prison with hard labor for raping two of his students several times.
The victims’ fathers filed complaints against the 29-year-old teacher last September. The Pyapon District Court judge handed down two 20-year sentences, the maximum penalty for the crime.
Yan Naing, who taught history at a basic education school in the village of Shwenyaungbin in Kyaiklat Township, raped a 15-year-old student five times in the teachers’ staff room and a 14-year-old student three times in a classroom, according to township police.
He had worked at the school since Oct. 2014.
“The court deemed that such people do not deserve to be teachers and that they harm the education community. So, it handed him the harshest penalty allowed,” prosecutor U Kyaw Zeya told The Irrawaddy.
The teacher was detained at Pyapon Prison while facing trial. After the sentencing on Wednesday, he was sent to Pathein Prison, where he will serve his time.
The teacher pleaded not guilty at the trial, saying it was a trumped-up charge filed by other teachers in conjunction with students. However, he was found guilty by district judge Daw Khin Lin.
“The parents of the victims and the community are satisfied with the harsh penalty given by the court,” said Daw Khin Moe Aye, a member of Yaung Ni Oo Women’s Organization in Kyaiklat Township.
In 2016, Irrawaddy Division saw a total of 101 child rape cases, in which children between the ages two and 16 were molested. There were 26 cases in Pyapon District alone, and the number was the highest among the districts in Irrawaddy Division, according to the divisional police force.
Translated from Burmese by Thet Ko Ko.
