Myanmar activist jailed for ‘ridiculing’ army

YANGON: A Myanmar court jailed a woman for six months on Monday for a Facebook post "ridiculing" the country’s army chief and the colour of a new uniform, the latest in an escalating crackdown on free speech.

Chaw Sandi Tun, a member of Aung San Suu Kyi’s election-winning National League for Democracy (NLD) party, was found guilty by the Ma-ubin Township Court in Ayeyawady Region, lawyer Robert San Aung told Reuters.

She was sentenced under the telecommunications law, enacted in 2013 as part of an opening up of the telecoms sector.

The act contains a broadly worded clause that prohibits use of the telecoms network to "extort, threaten, obstruct, defame, disturb, inappropriately influence or intimidate".

Chaw Sandi Tun’s post compared the light green new uniform for army officers with that of a "longyi", a traditional Myanmar skirt worn by Suu Kyi. She was arrested in October.