Myanmar’s military junta sentenced almost 2,400 people to prison terms in February, more than doubling the number of prisoners it sentenced since taking power in the 2021 coup to nearly 4,700.
Statistics from the Thailand-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, or AAPP, showed that between the coup and Jan. 31, 2023, the junta had sentenced 2,299 people, but in February 2023 alone, it sentenced 2,384.
According to the reports of the AAPP, in a single day on February 13, a record number of 1,293 people were arrested and 1,274 people were imprisoned nationwide.
Government opponents said the surge in imprisonments is an attempt by the junta to instill fear among the public, many of whom remain resistant to accepting junta rule more than two years after the military ousted the country’s democratically elected government.
Among those sentenced in February were 13 civilians who were deemed to be in violation of the country’s anti-terrorism law, according to reports that surfaced on the Telegram social media app, which has become a haven for pro-military writers who support the junta.
The 13 civilians include Myo Tun, 20, from the capital Naypyidaw, who got four years for what the court said was a violation of the anti-terrorism law. Soldiers beat and arrested Myo Tun in November 2021 and he has not seen his family since.
“We are not satisfied by this sentence by any means,” a friend of Myo Tun’s family, who like all other unnamed sources in this report requested anonymity for security reasons, told RFA’s Burmese Service.
“Giving such a prison term to a young man of only 20 years is stupid, it’s an act of bullying to those who blindly rely on weapons,” the family friend said. “I want to ask if they even found any trace of terrorism-related materials among his property.”
https://www.rfa.org/english/news/myanmar/sentenced-03012023161223.html
