#Myanmars #junta #executes #prodemocracy #rivals
Myanmar’s junta has executed four prisoners, including a former MP for Aung San Suu Kyi’s party and a prominent activist, state media said on Monday, in the country’s first use of the death penalty in decades.
The four were executed for leading “brutal and inhuman acts of terrorism,” the Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper said.
The newspaper said the executions were carried out “according to the prison procedure,” without saying when or how the men were killed.
The junta sentenced dozens of anti-coup activists to death as part of its crackdown on dissidents after it seized power last year, but Myanmar had not carried out an execution in decades.
Phyo Zeya Thaw, a former National League for Democracy (NLD) MP from Suu Kyi who was arrested in November, was sentenced to death in January for violating anti-terrorism laws.
Democracy activist Kyaw Min Yu – better known as “Jimmy” – was convicted by the military tribunal with the same verdict.
Two other men were sentenced to death for killing a woman they claimed was an informant for the Yangon junta.
– Diplomatic condemnation –
The junta was heavily criticized by international powers last month when it announced its intention to carry out the executions.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned the junta’s decision, calling it “a flagrant violation of the right to life, liberty and security of person”.
UN legal experts said if the executions took place – for the first time in Myanmar since 1988 – it could mark the start of a string of executions.
The experts said that under the junta’s martial law provisions, the death penalty could be imposed for 23 “vague and broad offences” – which in practice could include any criticism of the military.
International Crisis Group (ICG) Myanmar expert Richard Horsey said on Twitter the executions were “a monstrous act. And one that will send political shockwaves now and for a long time to come.”
Phyo Zeya Thaw had been accused of orchestrating several attacks on regime forces, including a gun attack on a Yangon commuter train in August that killed five police officers.
A hip-hop pioneer whose subversive rhymes angered the previous junta, he was jailed in 2008 for membership of an illegal organization and possession of foreign currency.
In the 2015 elections that heralded the transition to civilian rule, he was elected to parliament as the representative of Aung San Suu Kyi’s NLD.
The country’s military claimed voter fraud in the 2020 election – which the NLD won in a landslide victory – as justification for its coup on February 1 last year.
Suu Kyi has since been imprisoned and faces a range of charges before a junta court that could face more than 150 years in prison.
Kyaw Min Yu, who rose to prominence during the 1988 student uprising in Myanmar against the country’s former military regime, was arrested in an overnight raid in October.
Social Tags:
#Myanmars #junta #executes #prodemocracy #rivals
