Yangon – Myanmar’s junta regime has reportedly imposed death penalty against 7 University students, and another 8 students were sentenced to life imprisonment in Yangon on 17 March 2022.
The junta Tribunals’ continued sentencing of civilians to death and life imprisonment has shown Myanmar’s junta regime is further bolstering punishing pro-democracy activists and members associated with local resistance forces with lengthy imprisonment terms and death penalty in recent times.
Those whom the military junta tribunals have sentenced are University students and 15 in total, with 8 from Hlaing Tharyar, 3 from Dagon Seihkan and 4 from North Okkalapa. Of all, 3 from Hlaing Tharyar and 4 from North Okkalapa were sentenced each with the death penalty.
They were allegedly accused of killing the Middle school teacher in North Okkalap and Block Administrator in Hlaing Thar Yar in 2021.
A person with the knowledge of the junta court’s sentencing told Chindwin that these young people have never been a fair trial or lawyer to defend themselves from the junta’s accusations.
Dagon University Students’ Union (DUSU) says Ma Sawng Lay Pyi (aka) Zu Zu majored in Chemistry and Ko Naing Aung (aka) Snake majored in Myanmar are among those facing the military court’s decision on the death penalty.
DUSU adds Myanmar junta established its own court system in the townships where martial laws were announced since 2021 in the Yangon region, and the military courts have been sentencing lengthy jail terms and death penalties.
According to AAPP (Assistance Association for Political Prisoners) – a not-for-profit human rights organization, Myanmar’s military junta has sentenced 45, including 2 children in-person to death penalty as of 18 March. 39 have been sentenced to death in absentia.
Asked one of the senior former ministry appointments during National League for Democracy (NLD) government, Mr Thant, his pseudonym, says, “You might see there is no death penalty imposed during the previous NLD government. But the military is quick to reintroduce the old-day practice of reusing capital punishment as a tool for repression against citizens participating in the anti-junta movement”.
Chindwin has learned that no executions have been carried out in the returned- pariah country for over 30 years, although the death penalty is restrained in law and was still imposed by courts prior to the coup.
