Myanmar man gets death penalty for 2010 bombing
May 8, 2012, 3:12 PM
YANGON, Myanmar (AP) – A Myanmar court has sentenced a 33-year-old man to death for a bombing at a festival in 2010 that killed 10 people and wounded 170.
The lawyer for Phyo Wai Aung says his client was sentenced Tuesday after being convicted of murder and other charges.
The April 15, 2010, bombing, which ripped through a crowded celebration of the traditional New Year, was one of Myanmar’s worst terrorist attacks. The national police chief at the time, Brig. Gen. Khin Yi, blamed a radical anti-government exile group, the Vigorous Burmese Student Warriors.
Lawyer Kyaw Hoe says he will appeal the sentence. He insisted the court failed to produce evidence against his client.
No executions are known to have been carried out in Myanmar since at least 1988. However, the country’s courts are seen by outside human rights groups as susceptible to political influence.
The Hong Kong-based Asian Human Rights Commission described Phyo Wai Aung’s trial as “patently flawed and unjust” and said it involved torture and fabricated evidence.
(Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)
