Dec 25, 2008 (DVB)-A political prisoner named Maung San committed suicide at Bago jail on 19 December, a source close to the prison said.

Maung San, a youth member of opposition party National League for Democracy, used his longyi-sarong to hang himself in a toilet.

He nearly finished serving a two-year sentence, but committed suicide in protest of the deprivation of medical care and tortures he suffered in the hand of prison authorities, a local woman said.

"He had gastric and liver diseases and quite ill. They didn’t allow him to receive medical treatments," she said.

"His family came to request the permission for treatments recently but it was turned down and they confiscated all the food and medicine parcels for him."

The authorities also refused to return his remains home and buried him in Bago.

Reporting by Khin Hnin Htet