PHNOM PENH: Prime Minister Hun Sen has said that he hopes Myanmar military leader, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, would reconsider the death sentence ordered for two young men from opposition groups.
He made this statement while addressing the students who completed their training course in 2020-2021 at the Royal School of Administration, and for the start of the school’s training courses in 2022, on Monday morning, 11 June.
On Friday, 10 June, Prime Minister Hun Sen, in his capacity as the 2022 ASEAN Chair, sent a letter to Myanmar military leader, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, regarding the death sentence of two youths from opposition groups, asking him to reconsider this decision.
"I wrote a letter to Senior General Min Aung Hlaing in Myanmar requesting that the death sentences of two young men be reconsidered," said Prime Minister Hun Sen. "I hope that Senior General Ming Aung Hlaing will consider my request made within the framework of the ASEAN Chairmanship, as we do not want to see this happen on top of what is already a difficult situation."
In the letter, the Prime Minister said that the planned execution, if indeed carried out, would trigger a very strong and widespread negative reaction from the international community. He said this would also have a devastating effect on ASEAN and Cambodia's efforts as the ASEAN Chair, to support Myanmar’s return to normalcy and the pathway to finding a peaceful solution to the current crisis through inclusive dialogue in line with the ASEAN Five-Point Consensus (5PC).
Prime Minister Hun Sen reaffirmed Cambodia's commitment to assisting Myanmar's return to normalcy and the restoration of its full participation in the ASEAN Community building process.
According to Thai PBS World News, during a press conference on 8 June, the Spokesperson for Myanmar’s State Administration Council (SAC), General Zaw Min Tun, confirmed that four prisoners, two of whom are politicians, would be sentenced to death.
The four include ex-NLD MP Phyo Zayar Thaw and 88 Generation Student leader, Kyaw Min Yu, aka “Jimmy”, who both had their appeals rejected.
In response to a question posed at the press conference on whether people with death sentences will actually be executed, General Zaw Min Tun said, “Once the death sentence has been passed, they will surely be put to death through the legal process. When, how and where all depends on the prison manual. There will be steps to transfer prisoners to death row and so on.”
After the coup in February 2021, Phyo Zayar Thaw, along with the majority of NLD party members, went into hiding.
According to the SAC, he was arrested on 18 November for possession of firearms, including an M-16 rifle, a Sig Sauer pistol and bullets, in Yangon’s Dagon Seikkan Township.
