RANGOON – A cargo ship officer has been arrested on suspicion of stabbing to death a publisher for allegedly having an affair with his wife, according to Rangoon police.
Ko Wai Yan Heinn, 27, the publisher and editor of weekly news journal the Iron Rose, was found dead with 15 stab wounds in the chest and abdomen at his office in Pazundaung’s Ward 2 on April 16.
Police arrested U Aung Ko Ko, an officer for a Singapore-based shipping company, for the crime and said in a statement that the murder was not linked with Iron Rose stories that criticized generals of Burma’s former junta.
Ko Wai Yan Hein and Daw Al Ni (Rosy) had been in contact on Facebook for the past eight months, according to police. The ship officer became suspicious in October, said the statement, when a car parked near his marital home in Rangoon’s Mingalar Taung Nyunt Township sped away as he came home.
U Aung Ko Ko reportedly found the car belonged to Ko Wai Yan Heinn and was told by a friend that Daw Al Ni was seeing the publisher. The ship officer then allegedly locked his son and wife in their home on April 11, causing Daw Al Ni to phone U Wai Yan Hein for help.
The publisher broke the lock and brought the woman and her son to a hotel in Lanmadaw Township on the same day, said police. U Aung Ko Ko then reportedly phoned Ko Wai Yan Heinn before traveling to his office on April 14, where he is suspected of killing him and taking his iPhone.
The ship officer then picked up his wife and son from the hotel and fled to Pyin Oo Lwin in Mandalay Division, home to his parents, on April 15, said the statement, adding that he threw the iPhone away during the journey. After receiving clues, police found and arrested U Aung Ko Ko on April 19.
