An Insein Prison court in Yangon on Wednesday jailed one of Myanmar’s pioneering documentary filmmakers, Shin Daewe, for life on terrorism charges, according to family sources.
She was jailed under the Counterterrorism Law for funding and abetting terrorism.
The junta normally charges resistance members with terrorism.
Sources close to Shin Daewe, 50, said the filmmaker made donations to civilians in areas where resistance forces are active.
“She’s just a documentary filmmaker and volunteer and committed no crime. The family wants her to return home,” a source told The Irrawaddy.
Shin Daewe was arrested at the Aung Min Galar bus terminal in Yangon on October 15 after soldiers found a drone in her luggage.
She spent about a week in interrogation and was tortured, according to prison sources who saw her bruised and cut at a police station.
Her relatives have not seen her since her arrest and learned about her sentence from prison sources.
Shin Daewe won domestic and international documentary awards. Her documentary about the artist Rahula was popular in Myanmar.
Her 2013 “Now I Am 13” documentary tells of a struggling teenager from central Myanmar who is denied access to education because of her family’s poverty.
It won the Kota Kinabalu International Film Festival silver award and was named best documentary at Myanmar’s Wathann Film Festival in 2014.
Family sources said Shin Daewe is always eager to help others.
She was jailed for a month in 1990 and a year in 1991 for her involvement in pro-democracy demonstrations.
