Myanmar authorities have arrested three suspects in the murder of a local reporter who was badly beaten and left to die on the side of a highway in the town of Monywa in Sagaing region last December, a local police officer said.
Soe Moe Tun, the Monywa-based reporter for Myanmar's Eleven Media Group who had been reporting on illegal logging and wood smuggling, the mining industry, and karaoke lounges serving as brothels in the northwestern part of the country, was found dead on Dec. 13.
On Monday, police arrested a truck driver working in the local logging industry, local news reports said.
About two weeks ago, police arrested two karaoke lounge employees in connection with the murder and questioned them between Dec. 19 and Jan. 2, on which day they were remanded until Jan. 16 because the questioning process remained “incomplete,” the reports said.
“We detained one more suspected man yesterday,” Lieutenant Police Major Thein Swe Myint said. “Now we have been interrogating the three of them.”
Soe Moe Tun, 35, had worked as a reporter in the town since January 2015, reporting news about Monywa and its surrounding areas, according to a previous statement issued by Eleven Media Group.
“Eleven Media Group is doing necessary work concerning the death of Soe Moe Tun and [has] urged the respective police station to investigate the case as quickly as possible,” the statement said.
His death marks the fifth killing of a journalist in Myanmar since 1999.
Reported by Kyaw Thu for RFA’s Myanmar Service. Translated by Khet Mar. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.