First executions in decades
Military junta in Myanmar carries out death sentences
Despite international protests, the military junta in Myanmar has carried out executions for the first time in decades. The regime carried out the death sentences on four dissidents convicted in January.
The ruling military junta in Myanmar has carried out death sentences for the first time in decades. Four prisoners were executed for their responsibility for “brutal and inhuman acts of terrorism”, the state-run newspaper “Global New Light of Myanmar” reported on Monday. Among those killed was a former MP for the party of de facto Prime Minister Aung San Suu Kyi (77) and another well-known democracy activist.
Since seizing power in February 2021, the junta has sentenced dozens of its opponents to death. However, no death sentences have been carried out in Myanmar for decades. In early June, the military leadership announced the executions of former MP and hip-hop artist Phyo Zeya Thaw († 41) and activist Kyaw Min Yu († 53) and two other prisoners, but did not give a date.
It is the first death penalty in the Southeast Asian crisis state since 1990. “These death sentences, which were imposed by an illegitimate court of an illegitimate junta, are a hideous attempt to scare the people of Myanmar,” UN experts said in June .
Probably hanged
The “Global New Light” now reported that the executions had been carried out “according to the prison procedure”. She did not give any more details regarding the method or when. In June it was said that those convicted should be hanged.
Phyo Zeya Thaw was arrested in November and sentenced in January. Among other things, he is accused of organizing an armed attack on a commuter train in Myanmar’s capital Yangon, in which five police officers died.
Kyaw Min Yu rose to prominence in 1988 during student protests once morest Myanmar’s then-military government. He has served more than 20 years in prison in the past and was arrested once more last October. The charge: He is said to have called for unrest in online networks.
You’re pariahs
The military overthrew the elected government of Myanmar under de facto Prime Minister and Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi last spring. Since then, the military have ruled in the Southeast Asian state, once morest whom the self-proclaimed People’s Defense Forces have risen. Suu Kyi herself, who is under house arrest, was sentenced to an additional five years in prison in April. (kes/AFP)
