18 September 2023 :

Four men from Ayeyarwady region’s Bogale township have been given the death penalty for murdering a suspected military informer, residents told RFA on September 14, 2023.
The Pyapon District Court handed down the sentence on September 12 on Zaw Win Tun, Naing Wai Lin, Min Thu Aung and Pyae Sone Phyo after more than a year of investigation.
“During the water festival in Bogale township’s neighborhood six, a woman called Thuzar Gyi who was a moneylender with a loud voice was shot dead in the market,” said a township resident who declined to give their name for fear of reprisals.
The four men have been taken to Pathein Prison, locals said.
Four people have been executed since receiving the death penalty following the February 2021 coup. They include prominent 88-Generation student leader Kyaw Min Yu (known as Ko Jimmy) and Phyo Zayar Thaw, a rapper and MP for the National League for Democracy, the party which swept to victory in 2020 and has now been disqualified from taking part in elections.
The junta is increasingly relying on the death penalty to suppress dissent by accusing pro-democracy activists of murder.
On November 30 last year, a military court in Yangon sentenced seven students from Dagon University Students’ Union to death in connection with the killing of a former military officer.
Excluding the four men sentenced this week, a total of 146 people have received the death penalty since the coup, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners.

10 July 2023 :

Myanmar’s military reportedly killed two individuals affiliated with the country’s anti-coup armed resistance movement on July 6, 2023 in an apparent summary execution. 
The detainees, identified as Kaung Zarni Hein, 23, also known as La Pyae, and Kyaw Thura, 30, also known as E.T., were held in Yangon’s Insein Prison on suspicion of assassinating a pro-junta singer.
Both men were allegedly members of the Special Task Force, a local urban guerrilla group. They were apprehended by the military shortly after the assassination of Lily Naing Kyaw, a pro-junta singer and propagandist, in late May.
On the evening of July 6, military personnel reportedly took the prisoners from Insein Prison to Maungmakan Street in Ward 20 of North Dagon Township, located on the outskirts of Yangon, where they were shot and killed, according to reports.
Several pro-military news outlets, citing junta sources, claimed the two men were brought there to identify evidence but were killed because “they attempted to escape”—a rationale often employed by the military regime to justify arbitrary executions of detained opponents.
However, as individuals with alleged ties to armed resistance groups accused of committing a lethal assassination, an escape attempt is highly unlikely, as they would both have been taken out of the prison in handcuffs and shackles.
Pro-junta social media pages and Telegram groups reported that each detainee sustained three gunshot wounds before succumbing to their injuries.
Lily Naing Kyaw, a self-proclaimed “nationalist” singer aligned with the pro-junta faction, was targeted in an attack on May 30 in Yangon. She passed away shortly after being transported to a hospital.
The incident has deeply affected pro-military groups, who have since used social media platforms and messaging channels to call for retaliation.
The same groups also revealed that prior to her killing, Lily Naing Kyaw was working on a Burmese version of a Russian military song in collaboration with the Russian embassy in Yangon and the junta’s information ministry.
The summary execution of Kaung Zarni Hein and Kyaw Thura was widely applauded by the pro-junta groups, which also urged the regime to deal with all other detained political prisoners in the same manner.
Independent verification of the execution of Kaung Zarni Hein and Kyaw Thura by Myanmar Now is still pending. However, if confirmed, it is likely that the junta resorted to summary execution to avoid the international condemnation that it received when it executed four pro-democracy activists in Yangon’s Insein Prison in July of last year.
Furthermore, shortly after the arrest of the two suspects, unknown gunmen suspected to be linked to the military junta killed two relatives of one of the detainees.
Myanmar’s military routinely targets the relatives of its opponents for arrest or assassination.
Early last month, Than Myint, the brother of Aung Kyaw Moe, one of the deputy ministers of the publicly-mandated National Unity Government, was assassinated in Yangon.

16 May 2023 :

The military council on May 11, 2023 enacted the Arms Act, which can impose a minimum sentence of six months to life imprisonment or the death penalty if anyone is found guilty of illegally carrying a weapon and violates any prohibitions.
According to Article 419 of the 2008 Constitution, this Arms Act was signed by military leader General Min Aung Hlaing and all Arms Acts and Orders in force from 1878 to 1924 are hereby repealed.
The Arms Act, which includes Chapter 9 and Section 44, is intended to prevent crimes committed by carrying weapons that may affect national security, law and order, and community peace, as well as to prevent illegal production, distribution, and importation of arms.
The law states that no one shall transport, possess, or carry any weapon with the intention of committing treason, nor shall he destroy any weapon belonging to the state with the intent to destroy the state. Any firearm or ammunition that belongs to a state-owned weapon or a person who is legally allowed to possess one cannot be stolen, sold, transferred to someone else, or attempted to be stolen.
In addition, the law also states that it is prohibited to carry or display a weapon in a public place with the intention of threatening or scaring someone.
If found carrying, possessing or transporting a weapon against the law in a public place, the person will be arrested and the weapon will be confiscated, it said.
According to the Arms Act, anyone found guilty of violating any prohibition by illegally possessing a weapon can be sentenced to a minimum of six months to a life imprisonment or the death penalty.
On the other hand, the military council issued a policy on the right to carry firearms for staff, including civilians who really need to carry guns for their security on January 31.
In addition, the military council issued a statement on May 9 to apply for a license in accordance with the principle of the right to possess firearms in order to reduce and eliminate the illegal possession of weapons and ammunition and to prevent the misuse of them.

06 May 2023 :

Myanmar’s ruling military council on May 3, 2023 said it is releasing more than 2,100 political prisoners as a humanitarian gesture.
Thousands more remain imprisoned on charges generally involving nonviolent protests or criticism of military rule, which began when the army seized power from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in February 2021.
State-run MRTV television reported on May 3 that the head of Myanmar’s military council, Senior Gen Min Aung Hlaing, had pardoned 2,153 prisoners on the most important Buddhist holy day of the year, marking the birth, enlightenment and death of Buddha.
In a separate report, it said Min Aung Hlaing had commuted the death sentences of 38 prisoners to life in prison. The report provided no further details.
According to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, 112 prisoners were on death row as of May 2. The group keeps detailed tallies of arrests and casualties linked to the repression of the military government. At least four executions have been carried out since the military seized power.
The prisoner releases began on May 3 but may take a few days to be completed. The identities of those released were not immediately available, but do not include Aung San Suu Kyi, who is serving a prison term of 33 years on more than a dozen charges her supporters say were trumped up by the military.
According to an official announcement on state media, all of the prisoners granted pardons on May 3 were convicted under a section of the penal code that makes it a crime to spread comments that create public unrest or fear, or spread false news, and carries a penalty of up to three years in prison.
The terms of the pardons warn that if the freed detainees violate the law again, they will have to serve the remainder of their original sentences in addition to whatever term they are given for their new offence.
Two prisoners freed from Yangon’s notorious Insein Prison told the Associated Press they continue to support opposition political activities.
One arrested in 2021 said the terms under which they were released meant they would be on a government watchlist.
“But we know what we have to do. And we learned a lot from prison. Using that, we will continue to fight for the revolution,” said the former prisoner, who asked not to be identified for safety reasons.
Amnesty International said in an email that “anyone imprisoned for peacefully opposing the military coup in Myanmar should never have been jailed in the first place”.
The group’s deputy regional director for campaigns, Ming Yu Hah, added: “This long-overdue release should mark the first step towards the immediate release of all individuals who have been arbitrarily detained for exercising their basic rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly or other human rights.”
Mass prisoner releases are common on major holidays in Myanmar. The last release of this many political prisoners at one time occurred in July 2021, when 2,296 prisoners were freed.
In November, several high-profile political prisoners, including an Australian academic, a Japanese filmmaker, a former British ambassador and an American, were released as part of a broad prisoner amnesty that also freed many local citizens held for protesting the army takeover.

22 May 2023 :

Five resistance members accused of shooting dead four police officers on a Yangon train were sentenced to death by a junta court at Insein Prison on May 15, 2023, according to lawyers familiar with the case.
Suspects Ko Kyaw Win Soe, Ko Kaung Pyae Sone Oo, Ko San Min Aung, Ko Zayar Phyoe and Ma Myat Phyo Pwint were handed death sentences under the counter-terrorism law and separately given life sentences under the Arms Act (1949).
A court source confirmed the sentence, saying May 15 verdicts were delivered by a civilian court rather than martial court, as in previous such cases.
On August 14, 2021, six policemen working as guards on a Circular Railway train travelling from Yangon’s Central Station to Kyemindaing in the city’s west were shot at close range by three members of an anti-regime urban guerrilla group. Four of the police officers were killed on the spot while two were injured, and their firearms seized.
The targeted attack came one week after five resistance movement members jumped to their deaths from a four-story building to evade raiding troops. Two of the five died on the spot.
In September, the regime arrested five out of 16 people it suspected of being involved in the train attack.
The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) also verified that five men detained over the incident were sentenced to death this week.
AAPP said in its daily brief issued on May 18 that since the February 1, 2021, coup, a total of 3,520 people, including pro-democracy activists and civilians, have been killed in military crackdowns against the pro-democracy movement.
Junta courts have sentenced a total of 158 people to death since the coup.
Among those executed were four prominent pro-democracy figures including politicians U Jimmy and Ko Phyo Zeya Thaw.

25 October 2023 :

Myanmar’s military regime sentenced seven men in Ayeyarwady region to death, Pyapon township residents told Radio Free Asia over the weekend.
Pyapon District Court issued the sentences on October 20, 2023, ordering another seven men to spend up to 55 years in prison in the country’s southern delta.
The court found Wunna Tun, San Linn San, Kyaw San Oo, Thura Phyo, Tun Tun Oo and Aung Moe Myint guilty of murder. The junta accused them of killing two women who worked for Pyapon township’s administration department, as well as of being members of local People’s Defense Force, Black Dragon Force Pyapon.
On lesser charges, the district judge found Hein Thu Lwin, Win Myat Thein Zaw, Kaung Sithu, Kyaw Ko Ko, Zaw Myint Thu, Kyaw Thura and Ye Zaw Htet guilty under Counter-Terrorism Laws. Their charges included involvement in bombings and other terrorism-related activities. Their sentences ranged from five to 55 years in prison. 
Authorities took the group to Pathein Prison in the region’s capital and are keeping them isolated, sources close to their families told RFA. 
"Yesterday, 15 prisoners appeared in court. But one man was able to leave because his order wasn’t correct,” a person close to the court said, asking to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals. "Fourteen people were sentenced. The cases are the same. Then they were sent to Pathein Prison. They are being kept in solitary confinement."
But their cases aren’t over yet, he added. Officials are still processing additional charges. 
The group is one of the largest sentenced to death since the 2021 February coup began. A secret military court in Insein Prison gave seven student activists from Yangon’s Dagon University the death penalty on the same murder charge the Ayeyarwady men face.
RFA’s calls to Ayeyarwady region’s junta spokesman Maung Maung Than went unanswered.
Pyapon District Court also sentenced three men to death last month on accusations of murder as members of a People’s Defense Force. The judge issued the verdict to Kyaw Moe Lwin and Win Htay, both from Bogale township, as well as Maubin township’s Wai Yan Kyaw on Sept. 29.
Four residents from the Ayeyarwady region’s Bogale township, including Zaw Win Tun, Naing Wai Linn, Min Thu Aung and Pyae Sone Phyo, were given the death penalty on Sept. 4 for allegedly killing a local woman.
The regime has sentenced a total of 156 people to death since the coup, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners.

19 April 2023 :

Myanmar’s military regime has sentenced 151 civilians to death during the two-plus years since the coup in February 2021, according to an April 11 press release from the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP), which has been tracking casualties and detentions since the putsch.
Among those sentenced to death, 34 democracy activists were under the age of 30, according to AAPP.
“It can be seen that the regime is deliberately targeting young people who are actively supporting the democracy movement by opposing the military coup,” the AAPP statement said.
The regime sentenced to death four democracy activists — including 88 Generation student leader U Kyaw Min Yu aka Ko Jimmy and ousted National League for Democracy (NLD) lawmaker Ko Phyo Zeyar Thaw — in July 2022.
A court inside Insein Prison sentenced Ko Kaung Sett Paing, 20, a member of Yangon’s North Okkalapa students’ union, to life imprisonment on March 22.
A military court also sentenced Ko Hein Htet aka Ko Po Po, a student activist of the North Okkalapa students’ union, to life in prison on February 9.
“The imprisonment of students is due to the military dictatorship system that has been firmly built over the ages, with the support of the junta and the military bureaucracy. Therefore, only if the military dictatorship can be eradicated will we be freed from this oppression,” an official from the All Burma Federation of Student Unions (ABFSU) told DMG.
DMG continues to attempt to contact Maj-Gen Zaw Min Tun, spokesman for the regime, to confirm the information regarding the AAPP statement that 151 pro-democracy activists and civilians have been sentenced to death since February 1, 2021.
The regime has declared that the AAPP is an unregistered association that does not comply with the rules of registration of associations and has no legal standing under the law.
U Ye Tun, a Myanmar political analyst, said that since the coup, the regime has been acting as though it has the right to prosecute and punish individuals who are considered to be interfering with military rule.
“After the coup, individuals believed to have interfered with the regime are being prosecuted and punished. I want to say that the regime wants to do what it has the right to do, according to the Constitution,” he added.
AAPP is a nongovernmental organisation that was founded in Mae Sot, Thailand, in 2000, under a previous Myanmar military regime.