Actress in court over black magic claims

Actress in court over black magic claims

By Zon Pann Pwint   |   Monday, 01 July 2013

Father Land Construction plans to sue a three-time Academy Award-winning actress for defamation after she accused the company's chairman of performing an occult ceremony on the site they are jointly developing.

Su Htoo Pan cinema on Bogyoke Aung San Road before it was demolished by Father Land Construction. (Boothee/The Myanmar Times)

The company put a notice in state-run newspapers on June 27 announcing it would take legal action against Daw Wah Wah Win Shwe for her comments, which were made at a press conference and in a notice in state newspapers. It also accused her of trying to find an excuse to back out of an agreement to pay Father Land K1.2 billion to build a 21-storey tower on the site of a former cinema on Bogyoke Aung San Road, and said she has only been able to pay three-quarters of the contracted amount.

"Daw Wah Wah Win Shwe has delayed the date to make the contract for the new building because she couldn't give the money that she promised to give," the company said in the notice.

"She tarnished the reputation of the company by putting the advertisement in the newspaper accusing our company chairman of performing an occult ceremony on the site.

"The construction company will sue her for [the accusation] and a civil case has been filed to Yangon Region High Court to get compensation for the damage to its reputation."

Daw Wah Wah Win Shwe announced in late June that she had cancelled her deal with Father Land Construction because the company had failed to meet its contracted construction targets. In April 2012 she contracted the company to build a 12-storey tower on the Su Htoo Pan Cinema site on Bogyoke Aung San Road, which she owns.

"The company received K900 million (about US$900,000) and the cinema building from Daw Wah Wah Win Shwe. Aside from the demolition of the old cinema and putting up a fence around the site, they haven't done anything in 14 months – they haven't even begun laying the foundations for the new tower," Daw Wah Wah Win Shwe's son, U Win Htut Win, told The Myanmar Times.

However, he said it was revelations that senior officials from the company had visited the site in the middle of the night and performed an occult ceremony – lighting a candle on a piece of meat – that prompted her to sever ties.

"Witnesses near the site saw it happening and informed us," he said. "My mother called [the chairman of Father Land] on February 28 and asked whether he [performed the ceremony] and he confessed to having done it twice."

At a June 23 press conference, Daw Wah Wah Win Shwe's family played what they said was a recording of the Father Land chairman confessing to the act. Witnesses to the incident also attended the press conference.

U Win Htut Win said that following the phone conversation both sides had agreed to cancel the contract on March 25. Father Land officials said they would pay back the money, he said.

"Since then they have been avoiding us ... We told [the chairman] that we don't want to work with him and asked him to return the money to us but he still hasn't," U Win Htut Win said, adding that the family is considering legal action.

A spokesperson for Father Land, U Myo Myint, said the voice file played at the press conference was fake.

He said a dispute between the two sides broke out in March. In December, the actress had asked to increase the size of the tower from 12 storeys, plus a penthouse and basement, to 21 storeys because of the site's prime location and soaring property prices, he said.

"We made a verbal agreement to build it in January this year and she gave an extra K100 million for the new construction. Then the company submitted the proposal to Yangon City Development Committee's Committee for Quality Control of High-rise Building Projects. The plan included space for a hotel, cinema, shopping mall and restaurants," he said.

In March, Daw Wah Wah Win Shwe put an advertisement in state-run newspapers in an attempt to sell the extra apartments in the tower, he said.

Shortly after, the committee told the company to submit a new plan for the tower.

"While we were carrying out the department's instruction, the problem with the lighting of the candle in front of the site arose," he said.

U Win Htut Win said the construction company was at fault for not submitting an adequate construction plan to YCDC.

"It is not our job to draw the plan. We entrusted the task to them," he said.

The company's June 27 notice said that because Daw Wah Wah Win Shwe had cancelled the contract unilaterally she would not be refunded the K900 million. "If [Daw Wah Wah Win Shwe] makes a contract with [Father Land] to cancel the original contract to build a 12-storey tower the company will give back the site," it said. "Anyone who trespasses on the site before a contract is made to cancel the previous contract will be charged."

Source: http://www.news.myanmaronlinecentre.com/2013/07/04/actress-in-court-over-black-magic-claims/