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A court in Myanmar, controlled by the military that seized power in a coup on February 1, 2021, sentenced ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi to six years in prison on August 15 for alleged corruption. The sentence adds to at least another eleven years in prison to which Suu Kyi was previously sentenced. The Nobel Peace Prize winner, who rejects all the accusations against her, described the new judicial opinion as “absurd”.
As part of a campaign to politically “bury” her forever, Human Rights Watch called the new conviction against Myanmar’s ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
After a trial behind closed doors, a court sentenced this August 15 to six more years in prison to the dismissed leader of the country, for four alleged cases of corruption.
The court, controlled by the Army that ousted and arrested Suu Kyi after the February 1, 2021 coup, alleged that the political leader abused her position to rent public land at below-market prices.
In addition, it found her guilty of allegedly embezzling funds from the Daw Khin Kyi Foundation, which she founded to promote health and education in her country. According to the ruling, Suu Kyi would have diverted donations intended for charitable purposes to build a house.
A court in military-ruled Myanmar sentenced deposed leader Aung San Suu Kyi to six years in prison after finding her guilty in four corruption cases, a source with knowledge of the proceedings said https://t.co/dM8GYMr6Ft
— Reuters (@Reuters) August 15, 2022
Suu Kyi rejects all the accusations against her and called the new sentence “absurd”. His lawyers were prevented from discussing the proceedings due to a gag order.
“This is a massive attack on her rights and part of the campaign to bury her and the NLD forever,” said Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch, referring to the ousted National League for Democracy party.
Suu Kyi could be sentenced to up to 190 years in prison
The sentence published this Monday, August 15, is added to another eleven years in prison to which Suu Kyi was sentenced in separate trials, on charges of sedition and corruption.
However, the 77-year-old woman, who is being held in solitary confinement in a jail in the capital Naypyidaw, has been charged with at least 18 offenses ranging from corruption to electoral violations, which carry combined maximum prison sentences. nearly 190 years old.
Previously, the spokesman for the military government, Zaw Min Tun, stated that Suu Kyi is receiving due process by an “independent” judiciary and rejected criticism from the international community that he considers “interference”.
Suu Kyi, the leader arrested again by the Army who defended in recent years
Suu Kyi is the daughter of Aung San, the late leader of the campaign for Myanmar’s independence from British colonies. After entering politics, she was placed under house arrest in 1989 and spent several years in prison under orders from the Army.
In the 1990s he received several international awards. Among them the Nobel Peace Prize, the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Conscience, awarded by the European Parliament, and the Ambassador of Conscience Award, from Amnesty International. However, these last two were later withdrawn.
During the time that Suu Kyi shared the government with the military institution, she received strong criticism for not acting against the genocide of the country’s Army against the Rohingyas, the Muslim minority ethnic group in a country with a Buddhist majority.
In December 2019, he even defended his country from the accusations before the International Court of Justice, based in The Hague, calling the case “incomplete and incorrect”.
Following the 2015 elections, Suu Kyi and the military shared power for five years, and in that brief period, she pushed for reform efforts toward democracy.
But the military institution, which has governed the nation for five of the last six decades, took absolute power again by force on February 1, 2021, after Suu Kyi’s political party won the general elections on February 8. November 2020, in front of the Army candidates.
Since then, Suu Kyi’s fate has once again been left in the hands of the military and the country is going through a crisis, in which thousands of people have been imprisoned, many tortured, beaten or killed. Actions that the United Nations (UN) classifies as crimes against humanity.
With Reuters, AP and AFP
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