One of the relatives of the detainees said they were silent on the issue, fearing that the news in the Rohingya media would complicate matters and the government was reluctant to release them, but were surprised after 18 days of detention that the authorities refused to disclose their case or release them.
Relatives of the detainees deny all the charges against them and said that his was part of the authorities’ plans to reduce the proportion of Muslims in any way from Arakan.
According to a spokesman for the Arakan news agency, all were arrested on July 8, 2017, at midnight from the village of Nurullah south of the city of Maungdaw. They were then taken to Thang Kyaw camp. 40 were released and 10 remained on charges of having links with militants.
The spokesman added that the authorities transferred them next day to the prison of the city of Buthidaung, noting that one of the 10 detainees was accused of returning from Saudi Arabia and was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
According to the spokesman, the detainees were beaten and tortured with iron rods and were asked to pay a fine of 5 million kyat for each person in return for their release.
