US charges two in plot to attack Myanmar’s anti-junta UN envoy Kyaw Moe Tun
- In an alleged conspiracy foiled by the US, the Myanmar citizens spoke of hiring assailants to force Kyaw Moe Tun to resign or, if he refused, to kill him
- The pair ‘plotted to seriously injure or kill Myanmar’s ambassador to the United Nations in a planned attack … that was to take place on American soil’
US prosecutors said on Friday they had charged two Myanmar citizens in a plot to attack the country’s UN ambassador Kyaw Moe Tun, an outspoken supporter of the democracy movement who has refused junta orders to resign.
In an alleged conspiracy foiled by US investigators, the pair spoke of hiring assailants to force Kyaw Moe Tun to resign or, if he refused, to kill him, officials said.
The pair “plotted to seriously injure or kill Myanmar’s ambassador to the United Nations in a planned attack on a foreign official that was to take place on American soil,” said Audrey Strauss, the US lawyer for the southern district of New York.
Jacqueline Maguire, the acting assistant director of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), said that law enforcement acted “quickly and diligently” after learning last month of the potential assassination that was planned in Westchester County, a suburban area north of New York City.
“Our laws apply to everyone in our country, and these men will now face the consequences of allegedly breaking those laws,” she said.