Seven young people arrested in Yankin in April last year and severely tortured whilst held under interrogation have been sentenced to seven years imprisonment with hard labour by a military court in Yangon, reports DVB.

They were sentenced for allegedly possessing explosives and slingshots and taking part in military training provided by an anti-junta resistance group in 2021, in the wake of the military coup.

The group includes Khin Nyein Thu, a graduate of London’s Kingston University who holds British residency, and Hsu Linn Htet, whose mutilated faces were shown on state TV, according to the report.

A detainee held in interrogation and later released told of how Khin Nyein Thu experienced extreme sexual violence whilst being tortured.

BBC Burmese reported that one of the young men sentenced told lawyers that the group did not care if they were given seven or 17 years in prison, and told people not to worry about them but focus on those who could never return to their families.

Torture and bad treatment appear commonplace in Myanmar’s judicial system.