8/21/22, 10:24 PM Nationalists Subject Journalist to Devastating Legal Ordeal The financial burden and the time involved pose a huge problem for the Myanmar Now chief editor. Each trip takes at least two days, whether or not the plaintiff appears in court. “If the hearing is set for a weekday, my work week is reduced to two or three days. I have no free time because I end up working on Saturdays and Sundays to make up for the lost time,” he said. Despite this, Ko Swe Win has not missed a single court appearance. On the other hand, the plaintiff’s witness, U Wirathu himself, is based at a monastery just a 10-minute drive from the courtroom. This didn’t prevent him from failing to show up for the 48th hearing, in December. Despite the failure of the monk to present oral testimony to the judge and submit to the defense’s cross-examination, four or five novices came to listen to the hearing, arriving in a car belonging to Ma Ba Tha, the Association for the Protection of Race and Religion. Ko Swe Win has been verbally threatened by a Ma Ba Tha follower in the courtroom, and on another occasion his then lawyer, U Myo Min Zaw, was interrupted by a group of nationalists while he attempted to question the plaintiff. The nationalists challenged the lawyer with questions like, “Aren’t you a Buddhist?” Whenever there is a hearing in Ko Swe Win’s case, the court is crowded with monks and nationalists, along with ordinary observers. “I really thank the observers,” Ko Swe Win said with a laugh, referring to U Wirathu’s followers, “for not behaving with hostility toward me whenever I come here, especially on monk U Wirathu’s Mahar Aung Myay territory.” Almost two years of hearings, verbal threats and financial hardship have taken a toll on Ko Swe Win’s family. His wife has even asked him to consider a career change. Legal irregularities In December, The Irrawaddy attended Mahar Aung Myay Court and witnessed police officer Naing Moe Aye’s testimony and cross-examination by defense lawyer Daw Ywet Nu Aung at Ko Swe Win’s 48th hearing. Daw Ywet Nu Aung asked the investigating officer whether he was aware that monk U Wirathu had praised the murderers of U Ko Ni, and that this praise was the basis for Myanmar Now’s article, which its editor shared on his Facebook account. The police officer simply answered that he “did not know that.” The Irrawaddy has learned from the Mandalay court’s records that the plaintiff left out of the complaint the fact that Ko Swe Win shared the article. Ko Swe Win said he had in fact discovered numerous legal irregularities in the prosecution of his case. https://www.irrawaddy.com/features/nationalists-subject-journalist-devastating-legal-ordeal.html 3/5