The famous 77-year-old opponent is convicted after an 18-month trial.
Burmese leader Aung San Suu Kyi has been sentenced by a junta court to an additional seven years in prison for corruption, totaling 33 years behind bars, media reported on Friday. AFP a legal source.
The famous 77-year-old opponent, who appeared “in good health” according to this source, could face a life in prison marked by her struggle for democracy. The 1991 Nobel Peace Prize winner has been jailed since the February 1, 2021 military coup that ended a brief period of freedom in this Southeast Asian country with a turbulent history.
A court in the capital Naypyidaw, exceptionally housed in the detention center where Aung San Suu Kyi was held in solitary confinement, on Friday found the former leader guilty of five counts of corruption.
“A loss for the state”
In a helicopter rental case for a minister, she was accused of breaking the rules and “causing damage to the state”. “All her cases are closed, there are no more charges against her,” said a source, who asked not to be identified.
Corruption, electoral fraud, breaches of state secrets and anti-Covid restrictions… Since the trial, which began in June 2021, Aung San Suu Kyi has been convicted of multiple crimes.
The end of his 18-month trial, described as a legal show by human rights groups, opens a new period of insecurity in Burma, with the prospect of 2023 elections promised by the junta in a quest for legitimacy.
UN resolution
The two most recent general elections, in 2015 and 2020, brought to power the National League for Democracy (NLD), the iconic party founded by Aung San Suu Kyi in the late 1980s.
Also readThe shadow of Aung San Suu Kyi over a changing political landscape in Burma
The army justified its 2021 coup by claiming that it had discovered millions of irregular votes in the last ballot, which international observers saw as universally free. His plan to hold new elections was criticized by the United States but welcomed by its close ally and arms supplier, Russia.
The UN Security Council this month called for the immediate release of Aung San Suu Kyi in its first resolution in decades on the situation in Burma. This call, made in a rare moment of unity, was made possible by the abstention of China and Russia, Naypyidaw’s usual backers, who waived their veto power.
chaos
The junta immediately accused the UN of wanting to “destabilize” the country. Since the coup, the detainee has only been seen a few times in grainy photos taken by state media in an empty courtroom. The Nobel Peace Prize winner could serve part of her sentence under house arrest, experts say.
Aung San Suu Kyi remains a popular figure in Burma, even if her international standing has been tarnished by her inability to defend the Rohingya Muslim minority, victims of army abuses in 2016 and 2017 – a “genocide” according to Washington – was damaged. Burma descended into a period of chaos after the coup, with daily violence between the army and self-formed militias who accuse each other of killing hundreds of civilians.
According to a local NGO, more than 2,600 people have been killed under the junta’s repression. Several human rights groups have accused the Burmese military of carrying out airstrikes on civilians, which constitute war crimes. The army recorded 4,000 civilians killed on their site.
SEE ALSO – Annual ASEAN summit opens without Burma in Cambodia