Myanmar: Aung San Suu Kyi sentenced to another five years in prison

A Myanmar military tribunal has sentenced ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi to five years in prison after convicting her in the first of 11 corruption cases pending against her.

Nobel laureate Suu Kyi – whose government was overthrown by the military in the February 2021 coup – has already been sentenced in recent months to six years in prison. She faces a total of 18 charges and if convicted of all of them, she risks being sentenced to 190 years in prison.

“He will remain under house arrest. I do not know if he has asked to appeal,” said Zhao Min Thun, a spokesman for the junta.

In the case for which the military regime was convicted today, he accused 76-year-old Suu Kyi of receiving $ 600,000 and more than eleven kilograms of gold from Pio Min Thein, a former minister in charge of Rangoon.

Suu Kyi has been detained for more than a year under house arrest in an unknown location.

Civil trial

The judge announced his decision minutes after the court hearing in Naipaidu, the capital of Myanmar, said a source who is aware of the process and who asked to remain anonymous as the trial is being held behind closed doors.

Many international observers have denounced this process, which they say has political motives: to exclude Suu Kyi from the political scene.

Several of her close associates have also been sentenced to heavy fines, while others have been exiled after seizing power by the military or hiding.

Some lawmakers from the National Union for Democracy, Suu Kyi’s party, have formed a “national unity government” to undermine the junta’s legitimacy.

But 15 months after the coup, this government does not control any part of Myanmar territory and has not been recognized by any foreign government.

Suu Kyi remains very popular in Myanmar, although her international image has been hurt because she did not defend the Rohingya Muslim minority from persecution by the Burmese army. However, after her arrest, she has disappeared from the public space.

At the same time, militias have taken up arms against the junta in many parts of the country.

Last week, the head of the military regime, Min Aung Hlaing, called for peace talks with armed groups of various ethnic groups that control large areas of Myanmar and have been fighting the army for decades.

The coup of February 1, 2021 plunged the country into chaos. Nearly 1,800 civilians have been killed by security forces and more than 13,000 have been arrested, according to a local non-governmental organization.

Source: AMPE

Source: Capital

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