Models Thinzar Wint Kyaw and Nang Mwe San, who were jailed by the regime for “harming Myanmar’s culture and dignity”, have not yet been released, according to their families.
The regime freed 9,652 inmates in the Independence Day amnesty on January 4 but the two models were not among them.
Thinzar Wint Kyaw’s mother told The Irrawaddy: “I was happy when it was reported that she was being released. But she was not and I felt sad as her mother. She has been working as an actress since she was young and her beauty and valuable time are being wasted and it is wrecking her career.”
The models were arrested in August 2022 and prosecuted for allegedly posting clips online, including on the intimate video-hosting platform OnlyFans, which the regime said, “harmed the culture and dignity of the country”.
The junta said Nang Mwe San, 35, “distributed paid pornographic photos and videos that could … harm Myanmar’s culture and dignity”.
Thinzar Wint Kyaw, 36, who has over 1.5 million Instagram followers, posted similar videos to the site Exantria, the regime said.
The actress and model was jailed for five years by an Insein Prison court under the Electronic Transactions Law in December 2022. Nang Mwe San was given a seven-year sentence by North Dagon Township court in September 2022 under the same law.
Thinzar Wint Kyaw was detained briefly by the regime after traveling to Shan State to attend the wedding of the daughter of a Shan State Progress Party official.
Accusing Thinzar Wint Kyaw of harming national culture and dignity was just an excuse to detain her, according to observers.
Nang Mwe San had her passport seized by the regime when she went to renew it. The regime did not explain why it was seized.
In March 2021, Nang Mwe San, who trained as a doctor, posted a clip on social media in which she talked in English about the military’s crackdown on anti-coup protesters and its crimes against the Rohingya ethnic minority.
