Myanmar's military-backed parliament approved legislation allowing capital punishment for the most serious crimes connected to online scam centres. The Anti-Online Scam Bill passed at a joint sitting in Naypyidaw on July 28, parliament speaker Aung Lin Dwe announced during a televised session.
A draft published in May provided prison terms ranging from 10 years to life, and potentially execution, for people who use violence, torture, unlawful detention or cruel treatment to compel victims to participate in internet fraud. It made death mandatory when the underlying scam offence caused a person's death. A lawmaker told AFP that the final law retained the death-sentence provision.
The draft also proposed life imprisonment as the maximum penalty for operating an online scam compound or committing cryptocurrency-related fraud. The supplied reporting did not include the final statute's complete text, so the precise application of every offence would depend on the enacted version and future court proceedings.
Industrial fraud compounds have expanded across parts of conflict-hit Myanmar and neighbouring countries. Some workers join voluntarily, while foreign survivors have described trafficking, confinement and torture after being forced to run romance or investment scams. The operations target victims around the world and generate billions of dollars.
Pressure from China, the United States and other governments has pushed Myanmar's authorities to promise stronger enforcement. Monitoring organisations, however, say raids have often displaced networks rather than dismantled them. The UN Office on Drugs and Crime reported that crackdowns at established hubs near the Thai border had encouraged operators to shift activity elsewhere in Myanmar and into Cambodia.
The legislation was the first passed by the government headed by Min Aung Hlaing after he moved from junta chief to civilian president. He had led the 2021 coup against Aung San Suu Kyi's elected administration. Restricted elections that excluded Suu Kyi and her party produced a parliament dominated by pro-military politicians and criticised by Western governments and democracy groups.
The death-penalty provision also followed a complicated recent history. Min Aung Hlaing commuted existing death sentences in April after the post-coup authorities had resumed executions. Rights groups said those earlier executions targeted opponents of military rule, and the United Nations recorded more than 130 death sentences by 2022.
Supporters presented the new law as a response to abuse in scam compounds. Its effectiveness would depend not only on severe penalties but on enforcement against the criminal groups, armed actors and cross-border networks that sustain the industry.
A parliamentary member said armed organisations’ participation made the problem difficult to confront. That observation highlighted a central enforcement challenge: criminal compounds operate in areas where national institutions compete with militias and other authorities, limiting what a statute passed in Naypyidaw can accomplish on its own.
