A court in the Myanmar junta today sentenced civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi to five years in prison on corruption charges; this is one of the few cases that could sentence him to several decades in prison.
The 76-year-old 1991 Nobel Peace Prize winner was previously sentenced to six years in prison on charges of inciting the military, violating Covid-19 rules and breaking a telecommunications law, but will remain under house arrest while facing other processes.
In her lawsuit, the verdict of which was announced today, Aung San Suu Kyi was charged with bribery of US$600,000 and taking gold bullion.
After several days of delay, Naipyidaw, a special court set up by the military dictatorship in the capital, issued the verdict and sentence Wednesday morning.
“On charges of accepting gold and dollars from U Phyo Min Thein, the court sentenced him to five years in prison,” junta spokesman Zaw Min Tun told AFP.
“He will remain under house arrest. I do not know if he has decided to appeal, they are working legally. As far as I know, he is in good health,” he said.
Journalists do not have access to cases against the Burmese civilian leader, and his lawyers are barred from giving interviews.
Suu Kyi remains the target of a wide variety of charges, including breach of privacy law, corruption and election fraud, which could face more than 100 years in prison.
In March, he did not attend the three-day hearings as he remained in quarantine after a covid-19 infection among his employees.
During a previous military rule, Suu Kyi was placed under extended house arrest at her family’s home in Yangon, Burma’s largest city.
It is currently being held in an undisclosed location in the capital. Contacts abroad are limited to brief meetings with pre-trial lawyers.
civilian militia
The February 2021 coup sparked nationwide protests and riots, which the military violently suppressed.
According to a local NGO monitoring the situation, more than 1700 people have died since the coup and more than 13,000 people have been detained in crackdowns on dissidents.
Suu Kyi has been the face of Myanmar’s democratic hopes for over 30 years, but her previous six-year prison sentence would have prevented the junta from contesting elections it would hold in 2023.
Independent Myanmar analyst David Mathieson said the junta used criminal cases to make Suu Kyi “politically irrelevant”.
“This is another fragile attempt to consolidate the coup. It is politically motivated,” he told AFP.
Given his age, he “could end his life in prison,” said Phil Robertson, Deputy Director for Asia at Human Rights Watch. “Destroying Burmese democracy means first of all getting rid of it, the junta will leave nothing to chance.”
Many of Suu Kyi’s political allies have been detained since the coup, including a chief of staff who was sentenced to 75 years in prison, while others are in hiding.
Several “People’s Defense Forces” (FDP) have been created across the country, civilian militias are trying to fight the junta.
Analysts say the heavily armed and well-trained Burmese army was surprised by the effectiveness of civilian militias and fought to control them in some areas.
The turbulent situation in Myanmar since the coup alienated foreign investors who came to the country at the beginning of the democratic era in 2011.
Energy giants such as TotalEnergies and Chevron, as well as British American Tobacco and Japanese Kirin (from the beer business), have announced their plans to leave the country.
source: Noticias
