Brig Gen Tin Ko Ko to Face No Action over Alleged Plot to Entrap Reuters Reporters

By Nyein Nyein 30 April 2018

Police Brigadier General Tin Ko Ko, the accused mastermind behind the alleged entrapment of two Reuters reporters on secrets charges, will face no disciplinary action, nor will the allegations – which were made by a plaintiff witness during the journalists’ trial – be investigated, a police spokesman said today.

The witness, police Captain Moe Yan Naing, told a court hearing on April 20 that the arrest of the Reuters reporters – Ko Wa Lone and Ko Kyaw Soe Oo – on Dec. 12 was a setup carried out on the orders of the senior police officer. He said Brig-Gen Tin Ko Ko’s actions were “unethical and damaged the integrity of the country on the international stage.”

When asked whether the Myanmar police force would launch an investigation into the accusations made against police Brig. Gen. Tin Ko Ko as 10 days had passed since they were sensationally aired, police spokesman Colonel Myo Thu Soe, told The Irrawaddy on Monday that no action would be taken.

Brig. Gen. Tin Ko Ko is currently heading the Yangon-based Security Police Command, and he remains in the position, the police spokesman said.

Capt. Moe Yan Naing was sentenced to one-year imprisonment last Friday, under the Police Discipline Law for handing classified information to the journalists.

“He [Moe Yan Naing] was sentenced by the court in accordance with the Myanmar Police Force Maintenance of Discipline Law, and we have already referred him to the Correctional Department since Friday,” said Police Colonel Myo Thu Soe, adding that Moe Yan Naing was being held in Insein prison.

Moe Yan Naing’s family has not able to meet him since December and his wife, Daw Tu, said the family was not informed about the sentence either.

She told The Irrawaddy on Monday that she is hoping to see her husband at the next session of the trial of the Reuters journalists at the Yangon Northern District Court in Insein township on May 2, where Moe Yan Naing is due to appear again as a plaintiff witness.