Legal professionals and human rights specialists in Myanmar have condemned the junta’s liberal use of the dying penalty, together with a number of latest circumstances the place anti-junta activists obtained a number of dying sentences.
Such sentences are supposed to terrorize opponents of the junta, which is shedding floor to ethnic armies and resistance fighters in a civil warfare now in its third 12 months, however the absurdity of doing so is popping the judicial system right into a farce, rights teams say.
“Nobody must be sentenced to capital punishment twice,” Kyaw Win, govt director of the Burma Human Rights Community, advised Radio Free Asia. “The dying penalty for these circumstances is greater than sufficient, giving twice makes the authorized system a joke.”
Since taking management of the federal government in a Feb. 1, 2021, coup, the army junta has sentenced a complete of 164 folks to dying, based on the Thailand-based Help Affiliation for Political Prisoners.
On Feb. 29, the army junta sentenced seven folks to dying – 5 of them for the second or third time.
The seven – Thura Phyo, Tun Tun Oo, Kyaw San Oo, Ko Ko Aung, Aung Moe Myint, Win Myat Thein Zaw and Kaung Si Thu – had been convicted of murdering two girls from the Ayeyarwady area’s Pyapon township, who they believed had been junta informants, sources accustomed to the scenario advised RFA Burmese.
5 of the seven had already been sentenced to dying on Oct. 20, together with two different defendants, San Lin San and Wunna Tun, the latter of whom has been sentenced to dying twice himself. That case was over the killing of ward directors in Maubin, Pyapon and Bogale townships.
However 4 of these 5 had been concerned in a fair earlier case, which means they’ve now obtained the dying penalty 3 times.
As well as, the defendants in all three circumstances obtained jail sentences starting from 15 to 45 years.
Imposing a number of sentences is unprecedented in Myanmar’s judicial historical past, lawyer Kyee Myint advised RFA. “Just one [death] sentence should be given,” he stated. “Sentences shouldn’t be imposed repeatedly. It’s towards the legislation.”
Thike Tun Oo, a number one committee member of the Political Prisoners Community-Myanmar, stated that along with the repeated dying sentences, long-term jail phrases are usually not the honest punishments for the crime.
“The dying penalty shouldn’t be imposed on them in any respect as they’ve suffered the identical penalty,” he stated. “As well as, some had been sentenced to 45 years after the dying penalty. It’s a completely unfair sentence.”
RFA Burmese tried to contact the members of the family of the sentences by phone, however had been unable to achieve them.
RFA additionally tried to contact Khin Maung Kyi, the minister of social affairs for the Ayeyarwady area, however obtained no response.
Translated by Aung Naing. Edited by Eugene Whong and Malcolm Foster.