• U Gambira is the leader of the All-Burmese Monks Alliance (ABMA). ABMA took a leading role in the September 2007 nationwide anti-junta demonstrations.
• At the age of 12, he was forcibly recruited in a military unit in Rangoon. His parents managed to have him discharged and subsequently sent him to a monastery to be a novice.
• In 2005, he started campaigning among monks against the military regime.
• He went into hiding following the SPDC’s crackdown on the monks-led peaceful September 2007 protests.
• On 4 November 2007, SPDC authorities in Sagaing Township, Sagaing Division, arrested him.
• In January 2008, he was charged under Section 17/1 of the Unlawful Associations Act, which carries a maximum sentence of three years in jail.
• On 14 March, he was put in solitary confinement in Insein prison for chanting metta, a Buddhist prayer for loving kindness.
• On 18 and 21 November 2008, he was sentenced to a total of 68 years in prison and subsequently transferred from Insein prison to Khamti prison in Sagaing Division.
