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July 24, 2015

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Protest after 155 Chinese sentenced in Myanmar

Source: Xinhua/Shanghai Daily | July 24, 2015, Friday | Print Edition

BEIJING yesterday hit out at lengthy jail sentences handed down to more than 150 Chinese nationals for illegal logging in Myanmar.

Myanmar is being asked to “deal with this case in a lawful, reasonable and justified manner ... and return those people to China as soon as possible,” Lu Kang, a spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said in a statement.

China is highly concerned with the verdicts and is asking Myanmar to take China’s concerns seriously, take every factor into account and properly handle the case, Lu said.

The Chinese Embassy in Myanmar said the Chinese nationals were jailed for breaking a law covering the destruction of public property.

The Myitkyina District Court in northern Myanmar’s Kachin State sentenced 152 of them to life in prison under a 1963 law calling for jail terms of 10 years to life for anyone who steals or otherwise misuses or abuses public property, defense lawyer U Khin Maung said.

Two minors were given 10-year jail terms for the same offense while a woman was given 15 years in addition to life in prison for drug possession, the lawyer said.

A life sentence in Myanmar is equivalent to 20 years’ imprisonment, he said.

The loggers, who claimed they had been tricked into carrying out the logging, were arrested in January during a crackdown on illegal forestry activities in northern Kachin, which borders China.

Lawyers say the matter can be appealed to a higher level — the Kachin state judiciary — and then to the Supreme Court in Nay Pyi Taw, the highest level.

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