Myanmar Student Leader Sentenced to 37 Years for Protesting Junta Elections

Student leader Ko Htet Myat Aung. X/ @IrrawaddyNews

July 30, 2026 Hour: 9:17 am

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Ko Htet Myat Aung was convicted after months of incommunicado detention.

On Thursday, the independent outlet Mizzima reported that student leader Ko Htet Myat Aung was sentenced to 37 years in prison in Myanmar for protesting the elections organized by the military junta that seized power in a 2021 coup.

The 24-year-old leader and eight other detainees were convicted by a military court under the controversial law against election boycotts, which carries penalties of up to the death sentence in extreme cases.

The Yadanabon University Students’ Union said that Ko Htet Myat Aung, who served as president of the organization until 2023, was sentenced after spending seven and a half months in detention without contact with his lawyers or family members.

The young man, recognized by the opposition and human rights organizations as a peaceful leader of the protests in the Mandalay region, was arrested on Dec. 14, 2025, two weeks before the first round of elections organized by the coup-installed junta.

The world stays quiet about daily life in Myanmar.

Nobody wants to help the people in Burma.

Crimes by the military government against its people are documented daily and ignored by the entire world.@POTUS @FLOTUS @SecRubio @Pontifex @Franklin_Graham pic.twitter.com/3n6b2mzgg9
— Teeth the Fobbit 🏴‍☠️ (@teeththefobbit) May 19, 2026

The sentence includes 30 years in prison for actions against the elections and an additional seven years for terrorism, an offense that Myanmar’s military routinely brings against its critics.

“We strongly condemn the imposition of this unjust punishment on demonstrators who were peacefully calling for democracy and freedom,” the Yadanabon University Students’ Union said.

According to the International Foundation for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, Ko Htet Myat Aung has been subjected to extreme violence in prison.

The military coup ended a decade of democratic transition and intensified the conflict in which Myanmar has been embroiled for decades, with the emergence of pro-democracy guerrilla groups that have at times joined forces with ethnic minority rebel groups and are fighting the military for control of territory.

Between last December and January, the military held elections that were denounced as illegitimate by much of the international community and ended with the predictable victory of a party linked to the military.

Currently, international human rights defenders estimate that there are more than 14,000 political prisoners in this Asian country.