"Imprisoned activists opposed to the February 1 military takeover are being treated worse than convicted criminals, according to detainees who were released last week. Myanmar’s prison population has swollen since the coup due to the regime’s efforts to crush resistance to its rule. While hundreds rounded up over the past five months were freed last Wednesday, thousands more remain behind bars. Among them are many activists, university students, and members of the National League of Democracy (NLD) charged with incitement under Section 505a of the Penal Code. While they continue to endure harsh conditions in prison, well-connected criminals are treated very differently, former detainees told Myanmar Now. Nanda Marlar, a notorious fraudster convicted of cheating dozens of people out of millions of dollars, is the most striking example of a prisoner with special privileges, they say. Unlike most others being held in Yangon’s dreaded Insein Prison, Nanda Marlar has an 8’x12’ room of her own, complete with a bed and mattress, an air-conditioner, a TV and a radio, said one ex-prisoner. As a VIP prisoner, she also enjoys real power within the prison’s walls, according to those familiar with her circumstances. “She’s not afraid of anyone. Basically, she bullies everyone else in there,” said a recently released detainee who asked not to be identified. Meanwhile, prominent prisoners who have made a name for themselves by contributing to society are deprived of even basic necessities. Than Myint Aung, an author and cofounder of the Free Funeral Service Society, one of Myanmar’s most respected charities, was arrested on the day of the coup and still languishes in Insein Prison today. According to her daughter, who spoke to the BBC on June 30, she spent more than a month in an interrogation centre at the start of her incarceration. Now in her late sixties, she has a number of health issues, including cataracts in her left eye and deafness in her right ear. Despite this, however, the authorities have yet to respond to a request to allow her to receive healthcare. Myanmar Now attempted to contact the Department of Prisons for comment on Than Myint Aung’s situation, and about prison conditions in general, but did not receive a reply. Political prisoners in other parts of the country are not treated any better. Win Mya Mya, a veteran politician who was elected to the Pyitthu Hluttaw last year as the NLD’s candidate for Sintgaing Township in Mandalay Region, is currently being held in Mandalay’s Obo Prison. While she is confined to a small cell with a few other political prisoners, no such restrictions are placed on common criminals, said one woman who was a prisoner there until last week. “We who were detained under Section 505a face brutal oppression, but convicted criminals are free to come and go [around the prison] as they please,” the woman said. “They are allowed to keep personal possessions and have better privileges than any of us. They can move around whenever they want, while we were always locked up,” she added. What really disappointed her, she said, was the fact that some of the criminals she met in prison had committed very serious offenses, such as human trafficking and drug smuggling. Their relatively lenient treatment, when even political prisoners quite advanced in age were routinely subjected to torture, made a mockery of rule of law in the country, she said. Officials at Obo Prison declined to respond to requests for comment. While a number of journalists were among those released on Wednesday, most well-known activists and political figures are still being held pending trial. Of the hundreds of detained student council members, only one—Bhone Htet Naung, an education officer with the Yangon University Student Council—was released. According to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP), the junta is still holding more than 5,000 people in custody for resisting the return to military rule. As of Monday, a total of 892 Myanmar citizens have been murdered by the junta since the military seized power, according to AAPP figures..."