An international human rights organization has slammed the Myanmar government for denying fair trial to 12 Muslim men accused of receiving training from a so-called “Myanmar Muslim Army”.

Defense lawyers for the men along with security experts have claimed that the group does not even exist suggesting that the government has invented a threat from a terrorist outfit just to justify its persecution of Muslims.

In a statement Sunday Fortify Rights claimed that authorities had allegedly tortured the defendants now facing trial at Aung Myay Thar San Township Court in Mandalay the country’s second-largest city.

… Little is known of the Myanmar Muslim Army outside of a brief mention in a 2015 S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS) report in which Rohan Gunaratna writes of “unconfirmed reports about the emergence of a new group called Myanmar Muslim Army (MMA) which is reportedly using Thai territory for training Myanmar Muslims”.