A Myanmar junta court yesterday sentenced ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi to another six years in prison for corruption, a source with knowledge of the case said, taking the Nobel Peace Prize laureate’s total jail time to 26 years.
Aung San Suu Kyi, 77, has been detained since the Burmese military toppled her administration in a coup on Feb. 1 last year, ending the country’s brief period of democracy.
She has since been convicted on a clutch of charges, including breaching an official secrets act, electoral fraud and illegally possessing walkie-talkies.
Photo: EPA-EFE
In the latest case, the Nobel laureate was “sentenced to three years imprisonment each for two corruption cases,” in which she had been accused of taking bribes from a businessman, the source said.
The businessman, Maung Weik, last year appeared in a video televised by a military broadcaster claiming he had given Aung San Suu Kyi US$550,000 over several years.
Maung Weik — who was convicted of drug trafficking in 2008 — also said he had donated money to senior figures in the ousted leader’s National League for Democracy for the good of his business.
Photo: EPA-EFE
APPEAL EXPECTED
Aung San Suu Kyi — who denies all charges against her — appeared in good health and would appeal the decision, the source added.
She is on trial for five other corruption charges. Each carries a maximum 15 years in prison.
An Amnesty International spokesperson yesterday slammed the trial as a sham that “cannot be taken seriously.”
“Myanmar’s military is heaping trumped-up charge after trumped-up charge on Aung San Suu Kyi as part of a broader campaign to lock up and silence any and all opponents,” they said.
A junta spokesman did not respond to a request for comment.
Journalists have been barred from attending the court hearings, and Aung San Suu Kyi’s lawyers have been banned from speaking to the media.
In June, she was transferred from house arrest to a prison in the capital, Naypyidaw, where her trials are held in a courthouse inside the prison compound.
Aung San Suu Kyi has been the face of Myanmar’s democratic hopes for more than 30 years and was previously a political prisoner.
Since February last year, she has once again been confined by the military, with her only link to the outside world now brief pre-trial meetings with lawyers.
Many of her political allies have also been arrested since the coup, with one chief minister sentenced to 75 years in jail.
The Southeast Asian nation has been in turmoil since the military seized power, sparking widespread armed resistance.
The junta has responded with a crackdown that rights groups say includes razing villages, mass extrajudicial killings and airstrikes on civilians.
More than 1 million people have been displaced since the coup, the UN estimates.
More than 2,300 people have been killed and more than 15,000 arrested since the military seized power, a local monitoring group said.
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