Burma: junta frees ultranationalist Buddhist monk Wirathu
The Buddhist and Islamophobic monk Wirathu has been freed by the Burmese junta.
Reuters
Text by: RFI Follow
1 min
In Burma, the junta freed Ashin Wirathu, the ultranationalist and anti-Muslim monk, nicknamed "the Buddhist Bin Laden".
He was locked up last November by the government of Aung San Suu Kyi, but the military junta that took power six months ago has just released him.
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“
The face of Buddhist terror
”: this is the adjective that the
Times
found
in 2013 when it featured the Burmese monk.
The American magazine also called him a "Buddhist Bin Laden" for his propensity to stir up religious hatred.
In the early 2000s, he was sentenced to 25 years in prison for inciting riots against Muslims.
He has since been accused of stirring up violence against the Rohingya, a Muslim minority largely driven from Burma by the military in 2017.
But if
Ashin Wirathu
was once again behind bars last November, it is pending a trial for "incitement to hatred" against the government of Aung San Suu Kyi, overthrown last February by a military coup.
But since then, while other nationalists imprisoned for sedition were gradually released, Ashin Wiratu, yet a fervent supporter of the military, had remained in prison.
The pressure of his supporters on the junta therefore began to be insistent, and last month a video of the monk accusing the military government of trying to drive him crazy circulated widely on social media.
The junta therefore released him - but without explaining the dropping of all charges against him.
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Rohingya
Burma