Rangoon Division’s Security Affairs Ministry colonel Tin Win said a special tribunal would be formed to investigate the death of a 20-year-old woman who fell from the fifth floor of the Bureau of Special Investigation (BSI) building on 24 March.
Nang Woe Phang, of Shan state’s Monghpayak township, was taken into custody and questioned at the BSI building regarding her ownership of several houses and property on 21 March. At about 5am on 24 March, she died after falling from the building’s fifth-floor balcony.
Attorney and colleague of the deceased Ei Ei Aung was also taken in for questioning said Nang Woe Phang worked in the real estate sector and was married to a Japanese citizen. She was taken in for questioning after authorities learnt that she had come into possession of billions of kyat.
Ei Ei Aung said they were allowed to sleep at night, but were closely watched by female officials. She expressed her sympathy for the deceased adding the questioning might have been difficult for Nang Woe Phang because she didn’t speak fluent Burmese.
She said Nang Woe Phang had been sick due to food poisoning the night she died.
“She mumbled in her strong Shan accent that she wanted to vomit and then went off [to the balcony] so I told the guards and they followed her. But she was nowhere to be found in the corridor, “ said Ei Ei Aung. “We saw her on the ground so we took her to the hospital.”
Nang Woe Phang was pronounced dead at the hospital that morning.
According to Yangon Press Internationa (YPl), the husband, identified only as Mr. Namase, claims his wife jumped from the building after enduring psychological trauma induced by interrogations.
At a press conference in Rangoon yesterday, Namase blamed the BSI for allegedly interrogating her for three consecutive days while allowing her to sleep two hours a night.
According to the husband Nang Woe Phang’s family attempted to leave their home in Monghpyat, Shan state, to report the incident to Vice President Sai Mauk Kham, but were prevented from travelling by BSI officials at the airport.
Colonel Tin Win said he had received a report that Nang Woe Phang fell from the building while she was vomiting on the bureau’s fifth-floor balcony.
He said a tribunal would be formed to investigate the incident.
Ei Ei Aung said, two female guards and one male official present in the building when the incident occurred were summoned for questioning on 28 March.
“We will form a tribunal to reveal the truth,” said Tin Win.
