A student leader in Myanmar has been sentenced to 37 years in prison for protesting elections organized by the military junta that took power in a 2021 coup, according to independent outlet Mizzima.

Ko Htet Myat Aung, 24, and eight other detainees were convicted by a military court under a controversial law against election boycotts that can carry the death penalty in extreme cases, as reported by teleSUR.

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

Recognized by the opposition and human rights organizations as a peaceful leader of protests in the Mandalay region, he was arrested on December 14, 2025, two weeks before the first round of elections organized by the junta.

The sentence includes 30 years 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 Myanmar, with pro-democracy guerrilla groups sometimes joining forces with ethnic minority rebel groups to fight 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.