Freed US editor says he was tortured in Myanmar

Handcuffed and blindfolded, Nathan Maung says he was beaten and deprived of sleep in non-stop interrogation for days.

Myanmar security forces punched, slapped and beat a US journalist and kept him blindfolded for more than a week of interrogation, he said after being deported to the United States following three months in detention. Nathan Maung, 44, editor in chief of the online news platform Kamayut Media, was detained on March 9 in a raid and freed on June 15. His colleague Hanthar Nyein, who remains in detention, had been tortured more harshly, as had other people he met in prison, Maung said. “They kicked our face, hands and shoulder, all the time,” Maung, who was born in Myanmar, told CNN. “For every answer, they beat us. Whatever we answered — whether correctly or incorrectly — they beat us. For three days, nonstop.”