WAI MOE NAING
A writer, pro-democracy activist and member of PEN Myanmar, Wai Moe Naing was serving a combined sentence of 74 years in prison after conviction of ‘offences’ including rioting, robbery, incitement and murder at the end of the year. PEN International believes he is being held in connection with his political activism and exercise of his right to freedom of expression.
Wai Moe Naing was initially arrested on 15 April 2021 by junta forces that reportedly used an unmarked vehicle to ram Wai Moe Naing while he was driving on a moped as part of a protest rally in the Monywa region. When he tried to escape on foot, a group of armed men disembarked and assaulted him and a female protestor before detaining them both.
Previously sentenced in August 2022, October 2022, April 2023 and May 2023 to a cumulative sentence of 54 years’ imprisonment (see Case lists 2023/2024, 2022 and 2021), on 10 May 2024, Wai Moe Naing was sentenced to a further 20 years in prison after conviction of murder, bringing the total to 74 years. The conviction is reported to relate to the killings of two police officers in the Monywa region, but no evidence has emerged that links Wai Moe Naing to the killings. Since his arrest, Wai Moe Naing has been subject to repeated fair trial violations, with hearings held behind closed-door military courts. He has also been forced to represent himself following the arrest of his legal representatives, with others unwilling to represent him out of fear of retaliation from the military junta. Wai Moe Naing’s friends and family have rejected the accusation of murder on the strongest possible terms.
Wai Moe Naing, born on 26 September 1995, is a youth activist, writer, and member of PEN Myanmar. He began writing as a student, with his first short story being published in Teen Magazine at the age of 13. His writing has since been published in several literary outlets, including Khit Yanantthit Magazine and Pae Tin Tharn Journal. In the immediate aftermath of the military coup, Wai Moe Naing rose to prominence as a leader of the anti-coup protest movement and was among those who popularised the idea of banging pots and pans as a non-violent act of resistance to the military junta’s rule.