Burmese Court Sentences Maryland Man to Three Years' Hard Labor

A Maryland man arrested in Burma last fall has been sentenced to three years of hard labor for using forged documents and carrying undeclared currency, the Washington Post reports. Burmese-born Nyi Nyi had returned to Rangoon to visit his mother, an imprisoned democracy activist who has cancer, when he was apprehended and accused of attempting to stir up political unrest.

Nyi Nyi was sentenced to five years in prison, which was commuted to three years with hard labor. A U.S. Embassy spokesman strongly criticized the ruling, saying it was "unjustified" and "politically motivated."

Nyi Nyi is a well-known democracy activist who was involved in a 1988 student uprising in Burma that was put down by the military junta and left 3,000 people dead. He was granted political asylum by the United States and became a citizen in 2002. He lives in Montgomery County, Md.