On 19 January 2015, the human rights defender and community leader, Tun Aung, was released from Rangoon’s Insein Prison. He was serving a 17-year prison sentence on trumped up charges related to his efforts to prevent violence between Buddhists and Muslims in Arakan State during the June 2012 sectarian unrest.
In November 2012, a court in Sittwe, Arakan State, sentenced him to 11 years in prison. Following an appeal by the prosecution, the court added an additional six years. Prior to trial, he was denied family visits, was not allowed to appoint his own lawyer, and was denied private meetings with his court-appointed lawyer. Although presidential amnesties had reduced his overall sentence, Tun Aung still had over a year of his jail term remaining before his release.
FIDH mobilized and advocated for Tun Aung’s release through its Observatory and its profiles of Burma’s prominent political prisoners.