Posted on 8-12-2003
Burmese
Sentenced To Death
December 4, 2003Zaw Thet Htway, editor of the Burmese sports
magazine First Eleven, has been sentenced to death for high treason.
Although death sentences are rarely carried out in Burma, exiled Burmese
journalists call the sentence disturbing.
According to international press reports, Zaw Thet Htway and eight
other individuals, including a lawyer and a member of an opposition
party, received death sentences on November 28 at a special court in
Insein Jail near the capital, Rangoon.
Zaw Thet Htway has been detained since July 17, when military
intelligence officers raided the magazines offices and arrested him and
four other First Eleven journalists, who were soon released.
According to exile groups, the officers beat Zaw Thet Htway during the
arrest.
The eight other defendants who received the death
penalty were also arrested in mid-July. According to The Associated Press
(AP), the government accused all nine of plotting to overthrow Burmas
ruling junta, and of being involved with pro-democracy leader Aung San
Suu Kyis National League for Democracy Party.
In June, First Eleven had received a government warning after it
published an article that month questioning how grant money from the
international community for the development of soccer in the country had
been spent, according to The Irrawaddy, a Bangkok-based news magazine
run by exiled Burmese journalists.
In a statement released soon after the arrests, the government denied
that Htway was arrested because of his work as a journalist and said he
was detained on a totally different subjectbut did not provide further
details, according to the AP.
Htway spent several years in jail in the 1990s because of his work
with the Democratic Party for a New Society, a banned political party now
operating in exile. Family members told Agence France-Presse that he has
also been accused of remaining in contact with unlawful elementsin the
party. The AP reported that his wife, Khine Cho, was not allowed in the
court for the sentencing, but that she plans to appeal.
Burma has one of the most restrictive media climates in Asia.
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