57 months since former NLD MP Phyo Zeyar Thaw was unlawfully arrested and disappeared, wife says

It has been 57 months since former National League for Democracy (NLD) MP Phyo Zeyar Thaw was unlawfully arrested and disappeared by the Myanmar military junta, and those responsible for the unlawful arrest and disappearance must be held accountable, his wife, Daw Thazin Nyunt Aung, wrote on her Facebook page 18 August.

“57 months of unlawful arrest and disappearance. We have had no contact with him since the moment he was taken. Those who carried out this unlawful arrest and disappearance must be held accountable and face justice for what they did. Those who remain silent in the face of injustice are complicit in that injustice,” she wrote.

Phyo Zeyar Thaw was arrested by the junta in Yangon on 18 November 2021 and charged under Sections 49(a), 50(j), and 50(y) of the Counter-Terrorism Law. A military tribunal sentenced him to death.

The junta subsequently announced on 24 July 2022 that Phyo Zeyar Thaw, U Jimmy (also known as Kyaw Min Yu), Hla Myo Aung, and Aung Thura Zaw had been executed according to standard procedure. The four were hanged by the junta at Yangon’s Insein Prison, and the execution was reportedly personally overseen by then-Deputy Minister of Home Affairs, Major General Soe Htut.

The executions drew condemnation from the international community, including the United Nations.

This past July also marked four years since the executions of Phyo Zeyar Thaw, U Jimmy, Hla Myo Aung, and Aung Thura Zaw.