PEN America today condemned the sentencing of Salma Al-Shehab, a Saudi student at Leeds University in the U.K., who was sentenced to 34 years in prison for her Twitter activity.
The shattering news that four democracy activists were secretly executed at the end of July by Myanmar’s military junta demands a strong response, amid well-founded fears that the military is preparing to escalate its campaign of terror against civilians. The executions on Saturday, July 23 of the writer Ko Jimmy and the hip hop artist and former member of Parliament U Phyo Zaya Thaw were carried out after the two men were tried by a military tribunal on baseless charges of terrorism. The junta that has held Myanmar in its grip since the coup in February 2021 also executed the activists U Hla Myo Aung and U Aung Thura Zaw on the same day.
PEN America, the writers' organisation that fights for freedom of expression for writers and against their persecution made a statement about the Myanmar junta's execution of four pro-democracy activists.