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After being initially sentenced to four years, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate and former Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi had her sentence reduced to two years in prison. The conviction is based on accusations of incitement against the military and violation of restrictions during the pandemic. Her defenders allege an attempt to block the political leader.
The state of political, social and economic chaos that was unleashed in Myanmar since the coup that occurred in the first days of February 2021 continues to progress and further heightens the tension in the Asian nation.
This Monday, the deposed leader Aung San Suu Kyi received a four-year prison sentence on charges of incitement against the military for a letter that her party, the National League of Democracy, published asking international organizations not to recognize the Military meeting; and for violating the emergency laws against Covid-19 in 2020. However, the court hours later reduced the sentence to two years in prison.
Suu Kyi, 76, was sentenced by a capital court that also ruled against the deposed president Win Myint for the same sentence and Myo Aung, former governor of Naipyidó. According to the Association for the Assistance of Political Prisoners, there are around 10,000 opponents deprived of their liberty.
Both Suu Kyi and Win Myint will serve their sentences where they are currently being held, a location that has not been disclosed, suggesting that they will not be sent to prison.
The trial of Suu Kyi, without the presence of the press
The Military Junta commanded by General Min Aung Hlaing prohibited Suu Kyi’s lawyers, who denied all the accusations at the trial, from speaking to the media.
Governments such as the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan, or the United Nations and the European Union asked the military junta to release Suu Kyi.
The coup was carried out by the military after the Army alleged electoral fraud in the 2020 elections, when Suu Kyi’s party swept through. However, the Electoral Commission itself rejected these accusations, prompting an outbreak of widespread protests against the military.
More than 1,300 people died in brutal police and military repression against peaceful protesters. New militias re-emerged and clashes between guerrillas increased, a problem that has persisted in the Asian country for decades.
🇲🇲 Burma’s junta is trying to “stifle freedoms” by imprisoning deposed leader Aung San Suu Kyi for sedition and breach of anticovid restrictions, Amnesty International denounces #AFP pic.twitter.com/hcbLnrNF2N
– Agence France-Presse (@AFPespanol) December 6, 2021
The charges against Aung San Suu Kyi
While her whereabouts are not known after the arrest in February, this Monday Suu Kyi was found guilty of incitement against the military and for breaking laws against Covid-19 during acts in September 2020. For that last charge, she still has another process similar open.
The leader is joined by an accusation for violating the telecommunications law and for violating the Export and Import Law for the possession without a license of walkie-talkies and a jammer of signals.
To all of them must be included a complaint for violating the Law of Official Secrets, which has a maximum of 14 years in prison, for obtaining, saving and sharing documents with classified information; six counts of corruption – each can carry a 15-year sentence – for fraudulent use of funds from a charitable foundation in his name.
Finally, the Nobel Prize winner is singled out for electoral fraud in the 2020 elections, when her party was widely the winner.
Defenders of the political leader say the charges are unfounded and are aimed at ending her political career and binding Suu Kyi in legal proceedings for years while the Army re-consolidates itself in power.
Multiple Western countries have demanded the release of Suu Kyi and condemned the violence unleashed since the coup.
With EFE
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