Daw Aung San Suu KyiMyanmar’s ousted civilian leader, was found guilty of corruption on Friday and sentenced to seven years in prison, nearly two years after she was first detained by the military during a coup.
Aung San Suu Kyi, 77, a Nobel laureate, has begun serving a 26-year prison sentence for more than a dozen crimes she has faced since the military coup. The additional sentence she received on Friday, in a courtroom located in the capital Naypyidaw prison, ends her legal trials and makes it likely she will stay later. bars for the rest of his life – or as long as the government stays. power.
Her attorney plans to appeal, according to a source familiar with the proceedings.
Since the coup on February 1, 2021, Myanmar has been engulfed in violence. Protests broke out across the country as opponents of the corporate government a civil disobedience movement and national strike. The army responded with brutal force, shooting dead protesters in the streets. Thousands of armed resistance fighters have continued to fight the Tatmadaw, as the army in Myanmar is known, using guerrilla tactics and training in the jungle.
Last week, the United Nations Security Council passed a resolution condemned the government’s abuse of power after the coup and demanded the release of political prisoners.
Aung San Suu Kyi has been charged with a range of crimes, including corruption, election fraud, inciting public unrest and violating Covid-19 protocols. Several other government leaders have also appeared in court in recent months, and the regime has execute some democracy activists as it continued to suppress its rivals.
The military-controlled Election Commission first brought election fraud charges against Aung San Suu Kyi in November 2021, about a year after her political party won a landslide victory. During that trial, Aung San Suu Kyi and other senior government officials were accused of manipulating voter lists to win over the military-backed party. She has denied all the charges against her.
Friday’s sentencing is linked to a range of charges other than election fraud and is one of many that have been handed down against Aung San Suu Kyi in recent months.
She was convicted five crimes of corruption causing loss of state budget. In the most recent case, prosecutors argued that an investigation found Aung San Suu Kyi failed to follow proper procedures when she rented a helicopter and purchased a second, around the same time. period from 2019 to 2021.
The United Nations and other international organizations have demanded Aung San Suu Kyi’s release, although the junta insists that the charges against her are not politically motivated. U Kyee Myint, a human rights lawyer in Yangon, Myanmar’s largest city, said Aung San Suu Kyi is respected by many in Myanmar, but the military has long sought to minimize her influence.
Kyee Myint said: “As long as Daw Aung San Suu Kyi is in politics, the army will never win. “That’s why long prison sentences are used — to remove Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s influence in politics.”
Aung San Suu Kyi is the daughter of General Aung San, the country’s independence hero, who was assassinated when she was 2 years old. As an adult, she was one of many people who spent years in prison for political opposition to the military junta that took power in 1962 and ruled the country for decades.
In 1991, she won the Nobel Peace Prize for her nonviolent resistance to the generals who locked her up, making her a symbol of global democracy. She eventually began a power-sharing arrangement with the military when her party, the National League for Democracy, win the first landslide election in 2015. She was appointed foreign minister and state adviser.
At the time of her arrest in 2021, Aung San Suu Kyi was lost some of her lusterlargely because she downplayed the military’s campaign of carnage against Myanmar’s Rohingya Muslim minority, who have been forced out of the country by hundreds of thousands of people. But she still has devoted followers.
“Burmese protesters paraded portraits of her father, Aung San, decades after he was murdered, so we can assume her own portrait will continue to be used. used as a call to collective action and protest against those who hold illegitimate power, whoever she is. Renaud Egreteau, an expert on civil-military relations in Myanmar and a professor at the City University of Hong Kong.
He added: “She is still the matrilineal figure calling for resistance against the military. “I doubt a humorous experiment can change that.”
Since her detention in 2021, Aung San Suu Kyi has only been allowed to speak to her lawyers. They were banned from speaking to the media during the trial period. Earlier this year, the country’s military-backed Supreme Court announced it would auction off Aung San Suu Kyi’s mansion, where she spent nearly 15 years under house arrest during the former military regime.
