Dec 2, 2008 (DVB), Lawyer Aye Myint of Bago legal aid group Guiding Star said the group is currently working on the case of a monk who was imprisoned after being accused of stealing three men's wives.

Aye Myint said abbot U Peya Theikpan from Kaw Bein village monastery in Karen state went to Bago on 30 September and was beaten up by U Yaywata, a temporary monk and convicted murderer, Thein Htun from Yaysakyo township and a Kaw Bein villager named A-be.

The three men then handed him over to the Sasana administration in Bago, accusing him of stealing their wives.

U Peya Theikpan was later sentenced to two years in prison by Kawkareik township judge Kyi Soe on charges of bringing the Sasana into disrepute.

Aye Myint said the monk had not received a fair hearing.

"We are only trying to help the monk to seek justice as the Bago Sasana administration secretary, who was supposed be on the same side as the real monk, instead accepted a bribe from the men and treated him unfairly," he said.

U Peya Theikpan, 55, has been a monk for 35 years.

He has been suffering from a narrowing of the blood vessels in his heart and had one of his big toes amputated in October while he was being held in Taungkalay detention centre before sentencing, Myint Aye added.

Reporting by Yee May Aung