The Burma Lawyers' Council (BLC), a Thailand-based...

The Burma Lawyers' Council (BLC), a Thailand-based Burmese legal advocacy group, issued an urgent appeal to the international community on behalf of nine people who were sentenced to death by a Rangoon court in November 2003. Aung Htoo, general-secretary of the BLC, said the group wanted to publicize the case as it revealed how the Burmese military government used the country's judiciary to remain in power. On 28 November 2003, the North Rangoon District Court found nine people guilty of planning to assassinate military leaders and instigate an uprising. The nine were charged under Section 122(1) of the Penal Code of Burma and sentenced to death. Those sentenced included Zaw Thet Htwe, chief editor of the weekly sports magazine First Eleven and former general secretary of the Democratic Party for a New Society. Another was Nai Yetkha, a leading member of the New Mon State Party (NMSP), an ethnic rebel group that signed a cease-fire agreement with Rangoon in 1995. The BLC appeal letter claimed that the material evidence relied upon by the prosecution was not produced in court. "It is also clear that the Military Intelligence Service dominates the courts, and an independent judiciary is therefore absent," said the letter. "It is typical of the many repressive techniques used to keep the military junta in power, by silencing - one way or another - those who express support for democracy." Aung Htoo hoped the appeal would encourage the international community to raise questions about the case with Rangoon and that the outcome would be a review of the case within the Burmese judicial system and, as a result, a review of the military administration. "I hope that the victims will be released from the death penalty," he said. "We don't want innocent people to die needlessly."