YANGON: Two people were sentenced to death by a Myanmar court on Friday for the murder of a Muslim lawyer and Aung San Suu Kyi adviser, after a drawn-out trial backlit by allegations of impunity with a main suspect still at large.
Ko Ni, whose work and faith made him a target of hate speech online by Buddhist nationalists, was shot in the head at point blank range outside Yangon airport in January 2017, while holding his infant grandson.
The brazen daytime murder shocked the country and came about eight months after civilian leader Suu Kyi’s administration entered office. Ko Ni was a legal advisor to her National League for Democracy and had been working on plans to amend the 2008 military-drafted constitution, which gifts the armed forces control of defence and a quarter of parliamentary seats.
Critics have said the slow trial fell short of establishing a complete picture of what led to the murder, pointing to the military backgrounds of two suspects on trial and an elusive fugitive thought to be the mastermind.
In body camera video released on Thursday by the Canton Police Department, officers are seen apprehending the man
Voter turnout around the halfway mark was 39%, an Election Commission spokesperson said
The U.N. has said nearly 25 million people, half of Sudan’s population, need aid and some 8 million have fled their...
The influx of weapons could improve Kyiv’s chances of averting a major Russian breakthrough in the east
The Perlmutters gave at least $21 million to America First Action Inc in 2020
Twenty other defendants were handed prison sentences ranging from 4 years to life
