Myanmar’s military authorities have executed four democracy activists accused of helping carry out “terror acts”, state media reported  marking the first executions conducted in decades in the Southeast Asian country.

The executed men included democracy-figure Kyaw Min Yu and former lawmaker and hip-hop artist Phyo Zeya Thaw, the Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper said.

The newspaper said the four had been charged under the counter-terrorism law and the penal code and the punishment has been conducted under the prison’s procedures.