EThe court of the military government in Myanmar has sentenced the Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi to another three years in prison for “election fraud”. The 77-year-old politician, who led the civil government as a state councilor until the military coup in February 2021, had previously been sentenced to 17 years in prison for other offenses. She was accused of corruption, incitement and violating pandemic measures, among other things. Also on Friday, according to press reports, former British Ambassador Vicky Bowman and her husband, well-known Myanmar artist Htein Lin, were sentenced to one year in prison.
According to the website “Myanmar Now”, the authorities had accused the couple of violating immigration regulations. Accordingly, the couple did not live at their registered address in Yangon for a year, but at another address in the state of Shan in eastern Myanmar. Her husband aided her in the crime. The couple had been arrested just over a week ago. Britain had just imposed new sanctions on Myanmar’s junta. Bowman was British Ambassador to Myanmar from 2002 to 2006 and most recently headed an NGO for sustainable business practices. Relations between the countries are strained. In July, the de facto British ambassador was thrown out of the country by the junta.
Aung San Suu Kyi is said to be in solitary confinement in a prison in the capital, Naypyidaw. The military had disempowered them with the coup and arrested them. The junta justified the seizure of power with alleged electoral fraud by Aung San Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy (NLD). The party received by far the most votes in the November 2020 general election, while the parties linked to the military received very few. Despite a few problems, political observers at home and abroad judged the election to be free and fair overall. They assume that the junta wants to use the politically motivated process to put a long-time rival out of action in the long term.
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