Numerous people have reportedly been jailed for violating curfews to prevent the spread of coronavirus in Ayeyarwady and Sagaing regions and Mon State.
A court in Kale, Sagaing Region, sentenced 12 men to prison terms on April 27 for violating curfews, according to Kale’s Police Lieutenant Bo Bo Aung.
He told The Irrawaddy: “We detained 13 people but one was underage. We handed him to his family. We sent the other 12 to prison for one month.”
A curfew was imposed on Sagaing Region on April 24.
Seven people were jailed for a month in Yekyi Township, Ayeyarwady Region, on April 26 under Article 18 of the Prevention and Control of Communicable Disease Law.
Three crime reporters from Naypyidaw and four others were found guilty of trying to bring 13 workers into Yangon Region from the capital.
They used an ambulance light on their car and drove ahead of a truck carrying 13 workers. They were stopped in Yekyi and charged for gathering more than five people, a rule to prevent the spread of coronavirus.
Police Major U Aung Kan Nyunt in Yekyi told The Irrawaddy that a leading member of the COVID-19 Control and Emergency Response Committee prosecuted them.
“They were sentenced to one month in prison,” he said.
One man was jailed for three months in Ye Township, Mon State, for violating Article 18 of the Prevention and Control of Communicable Diseases Law.
Nai Krak Non, the village chairman in Kawthut, Ye Township, told The Irrawaddy that Myo Hlaing Oo came back from Thailand and entered a quarantine camp on April 7.
He was found to have destroyed tables brought from a school to the camp on April 18.
“I told him back that he would be able to go home but he said that he was not an animal to be held in a camp like a cage.
“We discussed it with the police as we could not control him and he has now been sentenced to three months in prison,” said Nai Krak Non.
Curfews have been imposed on most regions and states and returning migrants have been ordered to stay in quarantine camps for 21 days.
Curfews have banned people from leaving their homes between 10 pm and 4 am.
Around 24 people in Ayeyarwady Region were sentenced to a month in prison on April 23 for violating the curfew.
There have been 146 confirmed COVID-19 cases in Myanmar, including five deaths and nine recoveries, according to the Ministry of Health and Sports on April 27.
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