Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – A former military intelligence officer, ex-Col San Pwint, who was imprisoned by the Burmese military government in 2004, remained in prison on Friday, according to a family member.
An article in The Irrawaddy on Tuesday mistakenly said San Pwint, a key player in ethnic affairs and former spy chief ex-Gen Khin Nyunt's deputy head of ethnic affairs at the Directorate of Defense Services Intelligence (DDSI), had been released in June.A family member who asked to speak anonymously told Mizzima that San Pwint is still in Thayet Prison in Magwe Division, serving a 43-year sentence, where family members visited him recently.
San Pwint, in his early 60s, was one of the right-hand men of Gen Khin Nyunt, who is now serving a suspended 44-year jail term under house arrest. He was sentenced following a nationwide crackdown on DDSI in August 2004. Many intelligence officers received long prison terms.
The crackdown was believed to have been a contest between the infantry and intelligence institutions of the military government.
Meanwhile, ex-Lt-Col Thet Tin Sein, a former general staff officer at the administrative level of DDSI, was released in May under President Thein Sein's one-year commutation, according to a source close to military intelligence.
Both San Pwint and Thet Tin Sein are known as ethnic affairs experts.
