Win Htein, a top figure in the National League for Democracy (NLD), was arrested at his home in Yangon on Thursday evening as the new military regime continued its crackdown in the wake of Monday’s coup.
Police and ward officials from Mayangone township came and took the party stalwart at around midnight, a family member told Myanmar Now, adding that the officers told Win Htein he would be charged with sedition under section 124a of the penal code.
The charge carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.
Win Htein had recently returned from Naypyitaw after giving media interviews denouncing the military takeover, in which he said commander-in-chief Min Aung Hlaing had acted on his “personal ambitions”.
The family member, who asked not to be identified, said they were puzzled that Win Htein was not detained in Naypyitaw, where he was staying when Aung San Suu Kyi and other top government officials were detained in early morning raids on Monday.
Win Htein, a former army captain, told Myanmar Now shortly after the raids that “the personal ambitions of Min Aung Hlaing have resulted in this coup.”
He added: “It’s clearly not in the public interest. We have witnessed how our country became impoverished and a pariah state due to the previous coups in 1962 and 1988.”
He also echoed a call made by Aung San Suu Kyi for public resistance to the coup, saying that meant “civil disobedience, non-violence and non-cooperation.”
People across the country have taken up the call, with medics staging walkouts and vigils and small numbers of activists holding street protests. Cities including Yangon and Mandalay have also erupted in enormous evening noise protests since Monday.
Win Htein has been jailed twice for his resistance to former military regimes, serving a total of almost 20 years in prison before a political transition began in 2011.
