Media Release From Burma Justice Committee
The case of Ko Mya Aye, a leading pro-democracy leader incarcerated in Burma, now calling itself Myanmar, has been taken to court at the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention by the Burma Justice Committee. The case is being pleaded by Sappho Dias and Adam Zellick, Chairman and Vice-chairman respectively of the Burma Justice Committee, which comprises some of the leading lawyers at the English Bar.
Ko Mya Aye is a leading pro-democracy activist in Burma and was prominent in the 88 Generation Movement. He has campaigned tirelessly for the return of democracy to Burma and has consistently and peacefully urged the military rulers of Burma to enter into talks with the leaders of the democracy movement. Following the killing of the peacefully protesting monks in September 2007, in what has become known as the Sandal Revolution, Ko Mya Aye was arrested at his home and sentenced to imprisonment for 65 years and 6 months.
“We at the Burma Justice Committee are taking his case to court” said Timothy Dutton QC, Chairman of the Bar of England and Wales 2008, “because we believe his imprisonment is unlawful. He is being held in inhumane circumstances in a prison which his family cannot visit regularly because of its remoteness and we are reliably informed that he is very ill and not receiving adequate medical treatment”.