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Myanmar police arrest 2nd suspect in lawyer’s assassination

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FILE - In this Monday, Jan. 30, 2017, file photo, a Buddhist monk holds a portrait of Ko Ni, legal adviser and prominent member of Myanmar\'s Muslim minority, during his funeral in Yangon, Myanmar. Myanmar police say a conspirator identified as Myint Swe behind the assassination of Ko Ni, a longtime legal adviser of the ruling party National League for Democracy and leader Aung San Suu Kyi, has been arrested and under interrogation since Monday. (AP Photo/Esther Htusan)

YANGON, Myanmar – Myanmar police have arrested a man they say is a conspirator behind the assassination of a longtime legal adviser of the country’s leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

Myint Swe was arrested on Monday in southeastern Karen state that borders Thailand. Police alleged he hired the suspected gunman, Kyi Lin, who was arrested right after he shot Ko Ni in the head at close range at the Yangon airport on Sunday and tried to flee.

Ko Ni was a prominent Muslim lawyer who advised Suu Kyi’s ruling National League for Democracy party. He specialized in constitutional law, criticizing army interference in politics and advising Suu Kyi’s party how to try to get around statutes in the army-imposed constitution that gave the military undue power in the government democratically elected in 2015.

He was also an advocate for the Muslim minority in the overwhelmingly Buddhist country, a position that earned him the enmity of ultra-nationalist Buddhist monks and their allies.

Police said Myint Swe had been interrogated since Monday but refused to disclose any details. They said an initial interrogation of Kyi Lin showed that the killing was aimed at destabilizing the state. They did not elaborate.

Government officials have described the gunman as an ex-convict who had been imprisoned for illegally trading in Buddha’s statutes.

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This story has been corrected to show that initial interrogation concerned Kyi Lin not Myint Swe.

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