Suu Kyi gets 5-year sentence for graft
A COURT in military-ruled Myanmar sentenced deposed leader Aung San Suu Kyi to five years in jail yesterday after finding her guilty in the first of 11 corruption cases she faces, a source said. The Nobel laureate and figurehead of Myanmar’s opposition to military rule is charged with at least 18 offences carrying combined maximum jail terms of nearly 190 years, all but killing off any chance of a political comeback.
The judge in the capital, Naypyitaw, handed down the verdict within moments of the court convening and gave no explanation, said the source, who declined to be identified because the trial is being held behind closed doors, with information restricted.
Suu Kyi, who has attended all of her hearings, would appeal against the outcome, the source said.
The 76-year-old led Myanmar for five years during a short period of tentative democracy before being forced from power in a coup in February 2021 by the military, which has ruled the former British colony for five of the past six decades. It was not clear if she would be transferred to a prison to serve the sentence.
Since her arrest she has been held
in an undisclosed location, where junta chief Min Aung Hlaing previously said she could stay after convictions in December and January for comparatively minor offences that led to a six-year term.
The latest case centred on accusations that Suu Kyi accepted 11.4 kg of gold and cash payments totalling $600 000 from her protege-turnedaccuser, former chief minister of the city of Yangon, Phyo Min Thein.
Suu Kyi had called the accusations “absurd” and denies all charges against her, which include violations of electoral and state secrets laws, incitement and corruption.
Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director of New York-based Human Rights Watch, said: “Myanmar’s junta and the
country’s kangaroo courts are walking in lockstep to put Aung San Suu Kyi away for what could ultimately be the equivalent of a life sentence, given her advanced age,” he said. “Destroying popular democracy in Myanmar also means getting rid of Aung San Suu Kyi, and the junta is leaving nothing to chance.”
Myanmar has been in turmoil since the coup, with the military using lethal force to suppress nationwide protests and public anger. Thousands of people have been arrested and many killed, tortured and beaten, in what the UN has called crimes against humanity.
The international community has put sanctions on the military and dismissed Suu Kyi’s trials as farcical.