A court in Kawthaung Township on Monday sentenced four Thai fishermen to jail for illegal fishing in Myanmar waters, according to Thai media reports.
The court sentenced their fishing boat’s owner to six years imprisonment for illegal entry and fishing in Myanmar waters without a permit and fined him 200,000 kyats (around US$95).
The other three Thai crew were sentenced to four years on the same charges.
The junta court also handed a year’s imprisonment to 27 Myanmar migrant crew of the fishing boat for illegal entry.
The court’s judgment came 12 days after Thai Foreign Ministry spokesman Nikorndej Balankura told reporters that the Myanmar side had already released all four Thai fishermen.
But Thai media outlet Khaosod English reported that the court suspended the sentences of the Thai nationals after the boat’s captain confessed.
The kingdom’s Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra on Monday said the four detainees could be released after the New Year celebrations.
On Nov. 30, Myanmar Navy vessels attacked a flotilla of Thai fishing boats that the regime said were fishing illegally in Myanmar’s territorial waters near the island of Koh Phayam, seizing one of the trawlers and arresting the 31 crewmembers on board and towing them back to Kawthaung.
One Thai fisherman drowned after jumping into the water during the attack.
Thai naval forces retaliated recently by confiscating a Myanmar vessel along with six crewmen for smuggling 40,000 kg of salt-fermented shrimp into Thai waters.
A Myanmar national in Ranong told The Irrawaddy that Thai authorities recently escalated their arrests of illegal migrant workers there.
Thai authorities frequently use Myanmar migrant workers as scapegoats for all manner of crimes.
