Three young protesters sentenced to over 40 years for opposing junta elections

A junta court sentenced three young protestors to 49 years each in prison on Wednesday on charges under Section 23a of the military regime’s elections protection law, according to the protestors’ family members. Yan Naing Kyi Win, 23; Aung Ye Htut, 24; and Yamin Htet, 19 were separately sentenced by the Hlaing Tharyar East and West township courts under the Law on the Protection of Multiparty Democratic General Elections from Obstruction, Disruption, and Destruction. The junta announced on September 20, two days after detaining the youths, that they had put up anti-election posters in the Hlaing Tharyar East and West townships with yellow text on a red background, depicting the shape of a bullet on a black ballot box. Two months later, Yan Naing Kyi Win and Aung Ye Htut were convicted and each sentenced to 49 years’ imprisonment on seven counts of breaking the elections protection law. Yamin Htet was sentenced to 42 years in prison under 6 counts of the same Section 23 (a) of the law. Since their arrest on September 18, the detainees were allowed to see their families in person only once. The court imposed the maximum penalty for their charges after two hearings, while the defendants were seeking attorneys to hire, according to one of the defendants’ relatives. “These are young people,” the relative said. “They’re not thieves or robbers. They didn’t violate moral standards. They just expressed their beliefs. To hand down such sentences is extremely vindictive. These young people will be harmed deeply.” Yan Naing Kyi Win had previously been detained for protesting military rule shortly after the February 2021 coup and released in 2023 before his most recent arrest. His twin brother Yan Naung Kyi Win was also arrested for protesting the coup before being released in 2023 and arrested again in December 2024. According to the elections protection law, which came into force in July of this year, each violation charged under Section 23 carries a maximum prison sentence of seven years. Since Myanmar’s February 2021 military coup, 7,442 anti-regime activists have been killed and 29,998 have been arrested as of November 19, according to data collected by the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP). 85 political prisoners have been charged with violating the elections protection law, according to the AAPP.

Three young protesters sentenced to over 40 years for opposing junta elections

The protestors were each convicted on multiple counts of breaking a law enacted by the junta to criminalise disruption of the elections the regime plans to hold in the coming two months

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