Asia - Tuesday, November 11, 2008 7:09 - 0 Comments

Burmese Blogger Sentenced to 20 years for cartoon of Than Shwe

A Burmese blogger has been sentenced to 20 years in jail for posting a cartoon of the military leader Than Shwe. Nay Phone Latt, 28, was sentenced by a court in Rangoon’s Insein prison, said his mother, Aye Than.

Nay Phone Latt’s colleague Thin July Kyaw was sentenced to two years imprisonment, Aye Than reported.

Another dissident, Saw Wai, was sentenced to two years in jail for publishing a poem mocking Than Shwe in the weekly Love Journal.

The first words of each line of the Burmese language poem spelled out the message “Senior General Than Shwe is foolish with power”.

Nay Phone Latt was arrested in January; the sentence delivered on Monday included 15 years for offenses under the Electronics Act, two years for “creating public alarm” and three and a half years for offenses under the Video Act, his mother said.

One of his offenses was apparently the possession of a banned video. Continue…