Summary of the Current Situation:
There are 90 political prisoners incarcerated in Burma.
418 activists are currently awaiting trial for political actions, 132 of whom are incarcerated.
Month in Review:
This month, 19 political activists were arrested in total, nine individuals were sentenced and one was released. Eleven political prisoners are reported to be in bad health. Also this month, 45 new charges were piled on activists.
On February 1, 1o8 former political prisoners, including poets, singers, writers, lawyers, teachers and doctors took their seats as the new members of parliament.
Amidst the transition, the use of Section 18 of the Peaceful Assembly and Peaceful Procession Act to arrest and imprison political activists for their political actions continued. Twelve of the 45 new charges piled onto activists this month were additional charges under Section 18, many of which were for protests occurring over a year ago.