Myanmar actor jailed for cursing army with graffiti

YANGON: A Myanmar actor was sentenced to nearly three years in prison for scribbling curse-laden insults about the powerful army on his car, a police officer said on Saturday.

Tun Lin Thein, a 35-year-old who appears in Myanmar music videos, slammed the military as an "army of dogs" and spray-painted a number of other expletives across his silver Nissan in March.

He was arrested shortly after and convicted of defamation by a Yangon court on Friday.

"The court sentenced him for two years and nine months," police officer Thein Han, whose team handled the actor’s arrest, told AFP.

Freedoms have flourished in Myanmar since the military junta stepped down in 2011, paving the way for November elections that swept democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi into power.

But limits on expression remain, with criticism of the army especially taboo.

Police said the actor was also charged with defaming the national flag and a Buddhist flag, which he taped to his car alongside the graffiti.

"His behaviour was not only abusive to the Tatmadaw (Myanmar army) but also to our religion and national flag. That is why he had to receive this sentence," Thein Han said.

He added that the act appeared to be motivated by a personal grievance, saying officers believed the insults were levelled at the military family of the actor’s ex-wife.