Myanmar Film Producer Ma Aeint Jailed for Anti-Junta Activity (EXCLUSIVE)

variety.com:

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefFilm producer Ma Aeint has been sentenced to three years of jail, with hard labor, by a court in Yangon, Myanmar.Ma Aeint is the producer of the film “Money Has Four Legs,” which was directed by Maung Sun and began screening at festivals in 2020 before Myanmar suffered a military coup in early 2021.The pair also co-wrote the script, which centers on a filmmaker coming to terms with the realities of making a debut film and facing down censorship authorities.

The criminal case was not directly related to the film, though it may have made Ma Aeint a target for attention.She was found guilty on Friday of breaching Article 505A of Myanmar’s criminal code, which penalizes “causing fear, spreading fake news or agitating against government employees.” She was alleged to have given money to an illegal organization that opposes the Feb.

1, 2021 coup and the return of the country to totalitarian military control. Ma Aeint pleaded not guilty to the charges and had legal representation at the hearing at a prison court, held within the notoriously overcrowded and disease-ridden Insein Prison, near Yangon (formerly Rangoon).Her sentence is the maximum available under the law, but the total may be reduced by the 10 months she has already been officially detained.

She was arrested in early June 2021 in Yangon and was held for a month in judicial detention. She was then transferred to Insein, where she was treated as a political prisoner.