Case History: Kyaw Ko Ko

From 8 April 2016 to 12 April 2016, sixty-nine Burmese student human rights defenders, who had been detained since 2015, were freed. The student human rights defenders were on trial for over a year for protesting against the National Education Law. Dozens of other prominent Burmese human rights defenders were also freed following a presidential pardon.

On 11 April 2016, the Tharawaddy Court in Bago region released the General Secretary of All Burma Federation of Student Unions (ABFSU) Ms Phyoe Phyoe Aung together with her husband following the announcement of the presidential pardon. Charges against other leaders of the ABFSU, including Ms Po Po, Mr Kyaw Ko Ko and Mr Nanda Sitt Aung, were also withdrawn and they have been released. All Burma Federation of Student Unions is a student organisation that has been heavily involved in protests against the National Education Bill since November 2014, which they claim restricted academic freedom when enacted by Parliament on 30 September 2014. Members of the ABFSU insist on the adoption of ethnic languages in school curricula and the right to form student and teacher unions.

Prominent activists, such as Ms Nilar Thein, a member of 88 Generation Peace and Open Society Group, a former students group established to work for peace and to promote and protect civil society in Myanmar, and the labour and land rights defender and chairperson of Myanmar's Farmers Union, Ms Su Su Nway, have also been pardoned and released.

On 8 April 2016, the Tharawaddy Court dismissed the cases of sixty-nine student human rights defenders and their supporters, who had been on trial since the police crackdown on peaceful student protests in 2015. Most were accused of violating the Peaceful Assembly Law and faced charges under articles 143, 145, 147 and 505(b) of Myanmar's Penal Code, which concern unlawful assembly, rioting, incitement, and causing harm to a public servant. Some were facing charges from various townships where the education reform protests occurred and some were already serving their sentences when pardoned by the President. Their release took place over the course of several days. 

The Presidential power to grant pardon is based on section 204(a) of the Constitution and article 401(1) of the Code of Criminal Procedure that gives the President the authority to release prisoners at his or her discretion but stipulates that they can be returned to prison at any time to serve out the remainder of their sentence. Those human rights defenders who had been arrested but not yet convicted were pardoned based on section 494 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, which allows cases to be dropped even after a trial has begun. The reliance on the mentioned articles allowed the President to bypass the otherwise required approval of his decision by the National Defence and Security Council, comprised primarily of representatives of the old military government, and therefore quickly implement his decision to grant pardon.

Front Line Defenders welcomes the decision of the government of Myanmar to grant pardon to student human rights defenders and other prominent human rights defenders in the country and dismiss their cases, as it believes that they were persecuted solely because of their peaceful and legitimate work in defence of human rights in Myanmar. Front Line Defenders, however, calls on the government of Myanmar to release those human rights defenders that remain in detention and to undertake measures to reform the country's repressive legal framework.

On 29 October 2015, human rights defender Mr Kyaw Ko Ko appeared before Kamaryut Township court and is now beingdetained in Insein prison following his arrest on 29 October 2015 in Rangoon.

Kyaw Ko Ko spent more than seven months in hiding due to charges against him for participating in a peaceful protest on 10 March 2015.

On 29 October 2015, the human rights defender Mr Kyaw Ko Ko was arrested by plain-clothes police near San Pya market in Thingangkun Township after spending more than seven months in hiding. He is facing charges of unlawful assembly, rioting, incitement, and causing harm to a public servant and risks up to three years in prison, if found guilty.

In April 2015, the authorities brought charges against him and other student rights defenders for participating in a peaceful protest in Letpadan on 10 March 2015. Police responded violently to the protest and arrested approximately 126 students, including student leaders Po Po, Nanda Sitt Aung and Phyo Phyo Aun. The trial against the Letpadan protesters, who have been detained at the Thayawady Prison since March 2015, started in August before the Thayawady Township court. Kyaw Ko Ko, who was not present at Letpadan, led a similar peaceful demonstration in Rangoon on the same day and managed to escape when police arrived to stop the march.

His arrest came a day after Myanmar’s National Human Rights Commission called on the state authorities to free all students jailed earlier this year for a peaceful demonstration ahead of general elections in November. In the past weeks, several human rights defenders were arrested for peaceful activities, including Ms Khin Khin Kyaw and Patrick Khum Jaa Lee.