Myanmar could see first executions in decades as junta says death sentences of two activists upheld
“It’s confirmed that Phyo Zayar Thaw and [Ko] Jimmy would be on the execution list,” junta spokesperson Zaw Min Tun told CNN, without giving a date. In January 2022, veteran democracy activist Ko Jimmy and former National League of Democracy lawmaker Phyo Zayar Thaw were sentenced to death, according to a statement by Myanmar’s Office of the Commander-in-Chief of Defense Services. Amnesty International said news of the resumption of executions is “shocking.” They called on authorities to “immediately” drop the plan and for the international community to step up intervention efforts.”The death sentence has become one of many appalling ways the Myanmar military is attempting to sow fear among anyone who opposes its rule, and would add to the grave human rights violations, including lethal violence targeted at peaceful protesters and other civilians,” the organization said in a Amnesty added that since the February 2021 coup in Myanmar, the organization recorded an “alarming” increase in the number of known death sentences in the country from at least one in 2020 to at least 86 in 2021. An Amnesty from 2021 said that the last judicial execution in Myanmar known to have taken place was in 1988. There have been numerous death sentences in Myanmar since but they’ve usually been “commuted through mass pardons,” Amnesty says. CNN has been unable to independently verify when the last execution by the state was carried out in Myanmar. Cape Diamond reported from Yangon, Myanmar, and Irene Nasser reported from Hong Kong.