YANGON: In the nation’s first use of the death penalty in decades, the Myanmar junta has executed four convicts, including a former lawmaker from Aung San Suu Kyi’s party and a well-known campaigner.
Widespread condemnation of the executions, especially from the United States and France, increased concerns that other death sentences will be handed down and fuelled calls for the international community to take more severe action against the already isolated junta.
The four were put to death for carrying out “brutal and cruel acts of terrorism.”As part of its campaign against dissent after seizing power last year, the junta has executed dozens of anti-coup activists, but Myanmar had not carried out an execution in decades.
Former National League for Democracy (NLD) politician Phyo Zeya Thaw, who was detained in November for violating anti-terrorism laws, was given the death penalty in January. The military tribunal imposed the same term on democracy campaigner Kyaw Min Yu, also known as “Jimmy.”
