Burma sentences nine to death for treason

Nine people, including the editor of a sports magazine, have been sentenced to death for high treason in Burma.

A special court held inside Insein prison, on the outskirts of Rangoon, issued the sentence last Friday, said members of the capital’s legal community.

In July, Burma’s military government arrested 12 people, including Zaw Thet Htwe, 37, the editor of the sports magazine First Eleven.

Another of those arrested was Zar Naing Tun, the nephew of one of the hijackers of a Burmese airliner that was diverted to Thailand during a domestic flight in October 1989.

It was unclear if he was among those sentenced to death, although a report by the Norway-based opposition radio station, the Democratic Voice of Burma, said he was.

At a news conference soon after the arrests, the government said the suspects were captured with explosives and accused them of planning and carrying out bombings and plotting to assassinate members of the ruling junta.