Christian Freedom International

MAE SOT, THAILAND (Christian Freedom International) -- The military government of Burma has jailed two supporters of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi for one and a half years for “insulting religion” after they prayed publicly for her release.

Chit Pe and Aung Soe Wei, members of the detained Nobel laureate’s National League for Democracy (NLD) party, were each sentenced last week, according to lawyer and NLD spokesman Nyan Win. “They were sentenced... under the act of insulting religion,” Nyan Win said. “We do not know the details about their arrest but they were detained on remand under the Explosives Act,” he said.

Chit Pe and Aung Soe Wei were arrested at their homes in April after they led a prayer service in Twante township, about 30 miles west of Rangoon, at which they offered prayers for their leader’s freedom. The two are charged under Section 295a which addresses “desecration of religious buildings and property.”

Aung Soe Wei’s wife Ma Lwin said the two were immediately taken to Rangoon’s Insein prison following the verdict and were barred from speaking to family members waiting outside the court. Lawyer Kyi Toe said that his requests to authorities to let him meet his clients to were denied.

“I made a request to the police station chief Myint Kyaw and also to the court, but was denied both times,” said Kyin Toe. “I was not given the right to freely talk to and discuss with my client from the start until the end of the case.”

The military government of Burma has kept Aung San Suu Kyi in detention for 13 of the past 19 years, after refusing to recognize the NLD’s landslide victory in the country’s last elections in 1990.

She is currently being held in Rangoon’s notorious Insein prison on charges of breaching her house arrest rules in May, when an American man swam uninvited to her lakeside residence.

The Burmese junta has frequently enforced the law against “insulting religion” -- which carries a penalty of up to two years in prison.