A military court in Myanmar has sentenced a member of Aung San Suu Kyi’s ousted party to death for terrorism offences, as the junta intensifies a crackdown on the ousted leader’s party.
The Southeast Asian country has been in chaos since the February coup, with more than 1,400 killed in a subsequent crackdown on dissent, according to a local watchdog group.
Opposition figures, including Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy allies, have gone into hiding and “People’s Defense Forces” have sprung up across the country to confront the military.
Phyo Zayar Thaw, an NLD member arrested in November, was sentenced to death for offenses under the anti-terrorism law, the board said in a statement on Friday.
Prominent democracy activist Kyaw Min Yu, better known as “Jimmy”, received the same sentence from the military court, added the statement, which includes photos of both men.
Their sentences were also read on the nightly news of the state media.
The junta has sentenced dozens of anti-coup activists to death as part of its campaign against dissent, but Myanmar has not carried out an execution for decades.
Phyo Zayar Thaw, whose real name is Maung Kyaw, was arrested at an apartment in Yangon’s commercial center after a “tip and cooperation from compliant citizens,” according to the board.
The former lawmaker was in possession of two pistols, ammunition and an M-16 rifle, he said at the time.
He had been accused of orchestrating several attacks against regime forces, including a brazen shootout on a commuter train in Yangon in August that killed five policemen.
A hip-hop pioneer in Myanmar whose subversive rhymes angered the previous board, he was jailed in 2008 for belonging to an illegal organization and possession of foreign currency.
He was elected to parliament for Suu Kyi’s NLD in the 2015 elections that marked the beginning of a transition to civilian rule.
Kyaw Min Yu, who rose to fame during the 1988 Myanmar student uprising against Myanmar’s previous military government, was arrested in a night raid in October. The board had alleged that he had incited riots with his social media posts.
Suu Kyi faces a number of criminal and corruption charges, including violating the country’s official secrets laws, and if convicted of all of them, she could face sentences of more than 100 years in prison.
She has already been sentenced to six years for illegally importing and possessing walkie-talkies, flouting Covid rules and goading the military.
Before the coup, he was about to start another five-year term as the country’s de facto leader after the NLD won a landslide victory in the November 2020 elections.
Since the coup, many of his political allies have been arrested and a chief minister has been sentenced to 75 years in prison.
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George is Digismak’s reported cum editor with 13 years of experience in Journalism