Summary
- On Tuesday, the parliament in Myanmar, backed by the military, approved the Anti-Online Scam Bill, marking the first legislative action under the administration of Min Aung Hlaing.
- The proposed law from May stipulated life imprisonment for those operating scam centers or engaging in "digital currency scams."
- According to estimates from the UNODC, scam-related losses across the region are projected to reach between $88.3 billion and $114.1 billion by 2025.
Myanmar's military-supported parliament has enacted a law that allows for the death penalty for individuals who use violence or unlawful detention to compel others into participating in online scams. If such coercion results in the victim's death, "the death penalty shall be imposed," as detailed in a draft from May.
The draft also proposed life imprisonment for those who run online scam operations or engage in "digital currency scams (crypto scams)," alongside potential sentences of 10 years to life for coercive actions. Lower house MP Aye Chan confirmed to AFP that the death penalty remained in the final version of the bill, asserting that "the essential elements of the bill were unchanged." The complete text of the law has yet to be published.
This legislation is the first to be passed by Min Aung Hlaing's government, which came to power following the coup in 2021, with Hlaing taking on the role of civilian president in April. The constitution reserves a quarter of the seats—166—for military representatives, while the USDP secured 339 of the remaining seats in elections that Aung San Suu Kyi's now-dissolved party could not participate in.