RANGOON — Daw Mya Mya Htay from Rangoon’s Sanchaung Township filed a lawsuit under Article 66(d) of Burma’s Telecommunications Law against U Kyaw Myo Shwe, who recently filed a high-profile suit against Myanmar Now chief correspondent Ko Swe Win under the same law.
“A police officer from Sanchaung came to investigate the case and called me to the police station. He told me I was being sued based on a Facebook post I made,” U Kyaw Myo Shwe said.
U Kyaw Myo Shwe posted a message on his Facebook page that stated that if a military coup occurred again, it would be the fault of the general’s daughter.
“They told me I defamed Daw Aung San Suu Kyi in my post. But I told them that there were many generals and I was not referring to her,” he said.
U Kyaw Myo Shwe is a follower of extremist Buddhist monk U Wirathu and a member of the Buddhist nationalist group Ma Ba Tha. While filing charges against Ko Swe Win for allegedly defaming the firebrand monk, U Kyaw Myo Shwe stated that U Wirathu had instructed him to do so and that he had to listen to his orders.
He stuck up for U Wirathu, calling him a respected monk and saying that Ko Swe Win had defamed him when the journalist posted a story that alleged that U Wirathu should be expelled from the monkhood after lauding the assassination of National League for Democracy legal adviser U Ko Ni.
U Kyaw Myo Shwe told reporters that he believed Daw Mya Mya Htay’s charges were a direct response to his suit against Ko Swe Win. Both cases will go forward at this time.