Myanmar Union Parliament held its second regular session of the third Pyithu Hluttaw on June 28. (Ministry of Information)
Myanmar’s military-backed Union Parliament has approved an Anti-Online Scam Law that introduces tougher penalties for online fraud on July 28, including a mandatory death sentence in cases where victims die after being forced to participate in scam operations. It is also the first legislation passed under the government of President Min Aung Hlaing, who moved from junta chief to head of state in April following an election that the pro-democracy party National League for Democracy did not contest.
With the pro-military bloc holding close to 90 percent of seats, the outcome was never in doubt, and the debate was more revealing than the vote. Upper house MP Naw Yuzana Wah said international pressure had prompted officials to act and that the involvement of many armed groups and organisations left the government with substantial problems to address.
Under Article 47 of the law, individuals who use violence, torture, unlawful detention or other forms of coercion to force people into online scam operations face prison terms ranging from 10 years to life imprisonment, or the death penalty. Where such abuse results in the victim’s death, courts are required to impose the death sentence. The legislation does not prescribe capital punishment for all online scam offences. Operators of scam centres, including those involved in digital and cryptocurrency-related fraud, face a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.
The law also establishes a Central Committee for Combating Online Fraud, chaired by the Minister of Home Affairs, alongside regional and state-level committees and a dedicated enforcement agency. Authorities will be empowered to temporarily freeze financial transactions linked to suspected scam operations, facilitate information-sharing between banks, financial institutions, telecommunications providers and government agencies, and seize assets and equipment connected to online fraud. Placing that system under the interior ministry keeps enforcement priorities within the executive rather than with prosecutors or the courts.
Myanmar has become one of Southeast Asia’s main centres for transnational online scam syndicates, concentrated on its own borders with Thailand and China rather than in the interior. The criminal networks have been linked to romance scams, investment fraud and cryptocurrency-related schemes targeting victims across the world.
The timing carries as much political weight as the text. On July 9, the same parliament adopted a motion urging the government to review the ASEAN Five-Point Consensus on the grounds that it does not align with current political developments in Myanmar. Three days later, the foreign minister met his ASEAN counterparts in Bangkok and the bloc’s special envoy said afterwards that a return to summits remains far off. Transnational crime is the one file where Naypyidaw’s interests converge with those of ASEAN, China and the US, which maintains both a 40% tariff on Myanmar exports and a sanctions programme aimed at the compounds and their protectors.
Most compounds operate in territory controlled by militias aligned with the army, including the Karen force renamed the Karen National Army in January, and activity resumed at Shwe Kokko within months of the publicised crackdown there. Whether the mandatory death sentence is applied to compound owners and the armed groups that shield them or only to low-ranking workers and trafficked foreign nationals, will show whether the law functions as domestic policy or as diplomacy.
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