Regime media reported on Friday that Myanmar refugee rights activist Thuzar Maung, 48, and her family were arrested on an unspecified date after their “illegal” return to Myanmar from Malaysia and are under investigation by police.
This news comes over two years after Thuzar Maung, her husband Saw Than Tin Wan, and their three children; Poeh Khing Maung, Aung Myint Maung, and Thukha Maung, disappeared from their family home in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on July 4, 2023.
Regime media added that Thuzar Maung was charged in 2022 for violating Section 52(A) of the Counter-Terrorism Law by the Myittha Township Police Station in Mandalay Region “for providing funds and supporting the terrorist [National Unity Government].”
A warrant for her arrest was issued on Jan. 31, 2023 – six months before Thuzar Maung and her family disappeared without a trace from their family home in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Thuzar Maung is the founder of the Myanmar Muslim Refugee Community (MMRC) and Myanmar Migrant Workers Committee (MMWC) – two refugee rights groups based in Malaysia.
Human Rights Watch called on the Malaysian police to investigate the family’s disappearance in July 2023.
In the following weeks, Malaysian police posted photos of Thuzar Maung and her family on the Ampang District Police Facebook page. Police stated that they were investigating it as a missing persons case but provided no updates on the family’s disappearance after this.
Human Rights Watch criticized the police for not circulating the photographs of Thuzar Maung and her family to the public sooner.
In 2015, Thuzar Maung and her family became registered refugees with the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Malaysia, which provides status and protection to refugees in the host country under international law.
Following the Myanmar military coup on Feb. 1, 2021, Thuzar Maung continued in her role as a Myanmar refugee community leader in Malaysia.
She used social media to criticize the Myanmar military, which overthrew the National League for Democracy (NLD) government and detained its leaders State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi and President Win Myint during the coup.
Thuzar Maung had amassed over 93,000 followers on Facebook before her disappearance. She had expressed her public support for the NUG and began to use her office in Kuala Lumpur to organize on its behalf among the Myanmar refugee community in Malaysia, her colleagues told DVB.
Myanmar’s Counter-Terrorism Law carries a minimum sentence of three years in prison to a maximum of seven years.
