SITTWE, Rakhine State — Police have opened a case against a judge and a lawyer in Rakhine State’s Thandwe Township.
Thandwe Township police arrested lawyer Daw Khin Cho Win on Sunday, said police lieutenant of the Thandwe police station Kyaw Myo Htike.
“The Anti-Corruption Commission arrested her and we assisted the arrest,” police lieutenant Kyaw Myo Htike told The Irrawaddy.
The Anti-Corruption Commission said in a statement on Sunday evening that it opened a case against U Oo Thein Tun, who previously served as the judge of Thandwe Township and is now serving as the Kyaikto Township judge, and lawyer Daw Khin Cho Win.
According to the statement, the commission received complaints accusing U Oo Thein Tun, while serving as the judge of Thandwe Township in 2016, of receiving more than 16.2 million kyats of bribes in two lawsuits as well as manipulating evidence.
The commission launched an investigation and found that the judge did receive 6.2 million kyats from a plaintiff in a lawsuit, and that he also misused his power to manipulate evidence.
The commission also found that lawyer Daw Khin Cho Win bribed the judge with more than 4.7 million kyats, which she asked her client to pay, in the same case. The commission has opened a case against the two under the 2013 Anti-Corruption Law.
“We only arrested the lawyer. U Oo Thein Tun is no longer in Thandwe. He is the judge of Kyaikto Township now. The Anti-Corruption Commission will arrest him and they will both be investigated by the commission,” said police lieutenant Kyaw Myo Htike.
Daw Khin Cho Win is now detained in Thandwe Prison on remand.
Translated from Burmese by Thet Ko Ko.