Mya Aye was surrounded at gunpoint and arrested on February 1, 2021, the first day of the coup. He was charged with “inciting ethnic hatred” using a 2014 email to a Chinese official regarding the peace process in Myanmar. He was sentenced on March 10, 2022 to two years in jail under Section 505c of the Penal Code. On November 17, 2022, he was released from prison. His health deteriorated in prison.