Rebel group executes Myanmar child rapist

YANGON: A rebel group in Myanmar has executed a man for raping and killing a five-year-old girl shortly after he was released in a prison amnesty by the military junta, a spokesperson for the group said on Wednesday.

It is the second case since December of a child killer and rapist receiving the death penalty from an ethnic armed group in Myanmar’s Shan state. Myanmar’s judiciary has not ordered prisoner executions since 1988. However, in some border territories controlled by ethnic armed groups a parallel legal system operates and capital punishment is exercised.

A court administered by the Ta’ang National Liberation Army in Namhsan township sentenced the 24-year-old perpetrator to death earlier this month. Rebel group spokesman Major Tar Aik Kyaw told AFP that the man had received an amnesty from the junta and had only been back in his home village for 21 days before committing the crime.