YANGON — The chief minister of Yangon has recommended a former director at the Union Attorney General’s Office to replace recently ousted Yangon Region Attorney General U Han Htoo, who was arrested earlier this month for allegedly taking bribes to drop a murder case.
Yangon Region Parliament Speaker U Tin Maung Tun named Daw Khin Myo Kyi as the chief minister’s pick for the post on Wednesday. Lawmakers are expected to vote on the recommendation within days.
Daw Khin Myo Kyi, 61, spent 34 years with the Union Attorney General’s Office, most of them as a law officer and the last two as a director before retiring in June.
U Han Htoo and five others, including a judge and police officer, were arrested on Sept. 13 for allegedly accepting a total of 72 million kyats (about $46,300) and other gifts to drop a case against three suspects in the murder of Facebook comedian Aung Yell Htwe.
U Han Htoo, who was fired within days, personally pocketed 15 million kyats from the father of one of the murder suspects, according to the Anti-Corruption Commission.
On Monday, the Yangon High Court annulled a lower court’s decision to drop the case into Aung Yell Htwe’s fatal beating and release the three suspects.
On Tuesday, the High Court officially opened its own cases against U Han Htoo and his five alleged conspirators under two articles of the Anti-Corruption Law. The former attorney general faces up to 15 years in jail if convicted.
U Han Htoo’s arrest came after President U Win Myint publicly called on judicial officials not to shy away from high-profile cases, and followed a public outcry over the lower court’s decision to drop the murder case.
