Deposed leader convicted in trial derided by critics
BANGKOK — Aung San Suu Kyi, the civilian leader of Myanmar who was ousted in a de facto coup this year, was convicted on two charges Monday and handed a four-year sentence that was quickly cut in half — in proceedings widely criticized as a further effort by the country’s military rulers to roll back the democratic gains of recent years.
U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet called the proceedings a “sham trial.”
The verdict serves to cement a dramatic reversal of fortune for the Nobel Peace laureate, who spent 15 years under house arrest for resisting the Southeast Asian nation’s generals but then agreed to work alongside them when they promised to usher in democratic rule.
It is only the first in a series of cases brought against Aung San Suu Kyi, 76, since her arrest on Feb. 1 — the day the army seized power, claiming voting fraud in last year’s election. Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party won that vote in a landslide, and independent election observers did not detect any major irregularities.
The verdict was widely criticized abroad as a farce, and it threatens to inflame tensions further in Myanmar, where resistance to the takeover has been fierce and is increasingly armed in the face of a violent crackdown by the military.
Dr. Sasa, spokesperson for the National Unity Government, an opposition group that has declared itself the country’s shadow administration, called the verdict “a shameful day for the rule of law, justice and accountability in Myanmar” and said it represented an effort to “replace our dreams with military dictatorship forever.”
If found guilty of all the charges she faces, Aung San Suu Kyi could be sentenced to more than 100 years in prison. She is being held by the military at an unknown location — and state television reported that she would serve her sentence there. That sentence was reduced hours after it was handed down in what the report said was an amnesty ordered by the country’s military leader, Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing.
The cases against Aung San Suu Kyi are widely seen as contrived to discredit her and keep her from running in the next election.
She is revered at home for her role in the country’s prodemocracy movement — and was long viewed abroad as an icon of that struggle, epitomized by her 15 years under house arrest.
But since her release in 2010, she has been criticized for the gamble she made: showing deference to the military while ignoring and, at times, even defending abuses — most notably a 2017 crackdown on Rohingya Muslims that rights groups have labeled
genocide.