SITTWE, Rakhine State — Three Arakanese men detained in connection with the fatal shooting of a Myanmar Army corporal were released on Monday.
The three were released when no concrete evidence was found linking them to the crime while they were in custody for 30 days at Sittwe Township police station.
“Police have submitted our testimony to the Advocate General’s Office [of Rakhine State]. But the office has not yet commented. So, police granted us bail according to police procedure and released us,” Khine Bo Bo, one of the three Arakanese men, told the media.
The other two men are Ko Aung Che from Buthidaung Township and Ko May Yu Tun of the Arakan National Party (ANP). The ANP put up bail of 10 million kyats for each.
“The remand period ends today (Monday) and they would have had to be put on trial. But there is not enough evidence so they were released,” said Daw Aye Nu Sein, the lawyer acting for the three men.
When asked by The Irrawaddy, police lieutenant Aye Kyaw of the Sittwe Township police station said, “The case was transferred to the CID [Criminal Investigation Department] on Oct. 11.”
Win Htike (aka) Poe Lone, a corporal with the Military Security Affairs Office of the Myanmar Army, was fatally shot while he visited a fair with his family at Wingabar Grounds in the state capital Sittwe on Sept. 25.
Ko Aung Che, a university student, was arrested on Oct. 9, and two others, the following day.
ANP member Ko May Yu Tun was with Lower House lawmaker Daw Khin Saw Wai and other ANP members on an election campaign in Rathedaung Township the day the corporal was killed.
Ko Khaing Bo Bo told the media that he also had an alibi for the time of the fatal shooting.
Translated from Burmese by Thet Ko Ko.