Myanmar approves death penalty for some online scam centre offences

Myanmar’s military-backed parliament approved a law authorising the death penalty for people who detain or violently coerce victims into working in online scam centres, the parliament speaker said.

Union Parliament Speaker Aung Lin Dwe said during a live television broadcast that the “Anti-Online Scam Bill” passed on Tuesday after MPs approved changes to a draft at a combined meeting of the lower and upper houses in Naypyidaw.

Lower house MP Aye Chan confirmed to AFP that the death sentence remained in the approved version. He said there were not many significant changes after discussions between the two houses and that the important parts of the bill remained the same.

Draft legislation published in May said the law included sentences of 10 years to life in prison, as well as capital punishment, for violence, torture, unlawful arrest and detention, or cruel treatment carried out to force someone to commit online scams. It said the death penalty would be imposed if such an offence caused death.

The draft bill also included a maximum life sentence for people who run online scam centres or commit digital currency scams.

Internet fraud factories have expanded in Myanmar during the country’s civil war, forming part of a wider Southeast Asian scam economy that targets web users worldwide with romance and cryptocurrency investment frauds. The source says some workers are willing employees, while repatriated foreigners have reported being trafficked to sites in Myanmar and tortured by scam centre operators.

The anti-scam law is the first legislation passed by Myanmar’s new government, headed by former junta chief Min Aung Hlaing. The source says many analysts describe the military-backed parliament as a rubber-stamp legislature after elections widely criticised by Western nations and democracy watchdogs.