Friday, July 22, 2011

High-ranking former intelligence officer remains in Burmese prison

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Friday, 22 July 2011 18:55 Myo Thant

Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – A former military intelligence officer, ex-Col San Pwint, who was imprisoned by the Burmese military government in 2004, remained in prison on Friday, according to a family member.

A file photo of ex-Col San Pwint. Photo: S.H.A.N
An article in The Irrawaddy on Tuesday mistakenly said San Pwint, a key player in ethnic affairs and former spy chief ex-Gen Khin Nyunt's deputy head of ethnic affairs at the Directorate of Defense Services Intelligence (DDSI), had been released in June.

A family member who asked to speak anonymously told Mizzima that San Pwint is still in Thayet Prison in Magwe Division, serving a 43-year sentence, where family members visited him recently.

San Pwint, in his early 60s, was one of the right-hand men of Gen Khin Nyunt, who is now serving a suspended 44-year jail term under house arrest. He was sentenced following a nationwide crackdown on DDSI in August 2004. Many intelligence officers received long prison terms.

The crackdown was believed to have been a contest between the infantry and intelligence institutions of the military government.

Meanwhile, ex-Lt-Col Thet Tin Sein, a former general staff officer at the administrative level of DDSI, was released in May under President Thein Sein's one-year commutation, according to a source close to military intelligence.

Both San Pwint and Thet Tin Sein are known as ethnic affairs experts.

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