Sittwe (Akyab) Township Court sentenced 18 Rohingyas to one-and-half-year Imprisonment each under immigration act Section 13 (1) on August 5, a local said.

All of the people imprisoned are locals of Sittwe Township with most of them being internally displaced people (IDP) living in the IDP Camps. They were arrested and charged by the Sittwe Immigration under ‘Illegal Border Crossing’ on April 7, 2014 for returning from Bangladesh after getting medical treatments.

“They are all innocent. There were no access for the Rohingyas here to medical and health services after the INGOs and the foreign humanitarians were ousted by the violent Rakkhine extremist mob at the end of March 2014.

They travelled to Bangladesh to have medical treatment required critically. As they returned, they were arrested and charged by the immigration,” said a local in Sittwe.

On August 5, they were sentenced to one and half year imprisonment. There were some very sick and elderly people among those imprisoned,” he added.

The locals view that the imprisonments are extremely unjust, unsympathetic and prejudicial because it happened at a time that everyone is facing miseries in the region and all over the country as the result of disastrous aftermaths of the recent Komen Cyclone and they didn’t do anything illegal by returning to their own country after taking medical treatments in Bangladesh.

On one hand, the government has declared amnesty for many prisoners in the country and released many, on another hand; they have imprisoned many innocent people.

The 18 people are

No	Name	Father’s Name	Age	Address
1	U Mohammed Rashid	U Mohammed Hussein	60	Bawdupha IDP Camps
2	Daw Gul Bahar [sic]	U Abdur Rashid	82	Darpaing Rwa Haung
3	Daw Salima	U Abul Fazal	76	Darpaing IDP Camps
4	U Kyaw Min	U Noor Ahmed	69	Bumay village
5	Daw Shafica	U Sharif	53	Bawdupha IDP Camps
6	Daw Aishah	U Mohammed Hasan	52	Bawdupha IDP Camps
7	U Siddique	???	54	Bawdupha IDP Camps
8	Daw Monira Begum	U Hasan	40	Thakkay Pyin IDP Camps
9	???	U Abdu	40	Bawdupha IDP Camps
10	Daw Rahima	Muhammad Hasan	48	Bawdupha IDP Camps
11	Nesar Ahmed	???	28	Bawdupha IDP Camps
12	Mohammed Hussein	U Nazir Ahmed	29	Thay Chaung Village
13	Ismail	U Mohammed Rashid	27	Darpaing Rwa Haung
14	???	USiddique	14	Bawdupha IDP Camps
15	Mohammed Shafi	U Omar Siddique	10	Bawdupha IDP Camps
16	???	U Maung Hla	10	Bawdupha IDP Camps
17	???	U Abdu Nabi	10	Bawdupha IDP Camps
18	???	U Abdu Nabi	7	Bawdupha IDP Camps

Of the 18 people, three women, Daw Gul Bahar [sic], Daw Salima and Daw Shafica are facing severe diseases. Daw Gul Bahar [sic] was later transferred to Sittwe General Hospital for treatment.

Daw Salima is patient of Heart Disease, Chronic Gastric Pains and Kidney Diseases, Daw Shafica has asthma and had her one-eye operated and another one also needs treatments.

Later, the four under-aged children, three of age 10 and one of age 7, were released.

[Edited by M.S. Anwar]

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