Aung San Suu Kyi given six extra years in prison on corruption charges
Ousted leader of Myanmar will appeal against new conviction added to earlier 11-year sentence
Associated Press
Mon 15 Aug 2022 13.04 BST
A court in military-ruled Myanmar convicted the country’s ousted leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, on more corruption charges on Monday, adding six years to her earlier 11-year prison sentence, a legal official said.
The trial was held behind closed doors, with no access for media or the public, and her lawyers were forbidden by a gag order from revealing information about the proceedings.
In the four corruption cases decided on Monday, Aung San Suu Kyi was alleged to have abused her position to rent public land at below market prices and to have built a residence with donations meant for charitable purposes. She received sentences of three years for each of the four counts, but the sentences for three of them will be served concurrently, giving her a total of six more years in prison.
She denied all the charges, and her lawyers are expected to appeal.
The EU’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, on Monday condemned the sentencing and called for her release.
“I condemn the unjust sentence of Aung San Suu Kyi to an additional six years of detention,” Borrell wrote on Twitter, calling on the Myanmar regime to “immediately and unconditionally release her”.
He also urged the nation’s military junta to release “all political prisoners, and respect the will of the people”.
Aung San Suu Kyi had already been sentenced to 11 years in prison on sedition, corruption and other charges at earlier trials after the military ousted her elected government and detained her in February 2021.
Analysts say the numerous charges against her and her allies are an attempt to legitimise the military’s seizure of power while eliminating her from politics before the military holds an election it has promised for next year.
Aung San Suu Kyi and her co-defendants have denied all the allegations, and their lawyers are expected to file appeals in the coming days, according to the legal official, who asked not to be identified because he was not authorised to release information and feared punishment by the authorities.
Other top members of Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party and her government have also been arrested and imprisoned, and the authorities have suggested they might dissolve the party before the next election.
The army seized power and detained Aung San Suu Kyi on 1 February 2021, the day when her party would have started a second five-year term in office after it won a landslide victory in a November 2020 general election. The army said it acted because there had been massive voting fraud, but independent election observers did not find any major irregularities.
The army’s takeover prompted peaceful nationwide street protests that security forces quashed with lethal force, triggering armed resistance that some UN experts now characterise as civil war. The military government has been accused of human rights abuses including arbitrary arrests and killings, torture, and military sweeps that include air attacks on civilians and the burning of entire villages.
Aung San Suu Kyi, 77, has been the face of opposition to military rule in Myanmar for more than three decades. She won the 1991 Nobel peace prize while under house arrest.
Her five years as its civilian government leader were marked by repression and military dominance even though it was Myanmar’s most democratic period since a 1962 coup.
Aung San Suu Kyi has been charged with a total of 11 counts under the country’s anti-corruption act, with each count punishable by up to 15 years in prison and a fine.
During Monday’s verdicts, the legal official said Aung San Suu Kyi received a three-year prison sentence for building a residence for herself in Naypyidaw, allegedly with money donated for a charitable foundation she chaired, which was named after her mother.
She received a three-year sentence for allegedly taking advantage of her position to rent property in Yangon, the country’s biggest city, for the same foundation, the official said.
The two other cases decided Monday involved parcels of land in Naypyidaw for which she allegedly abused her authority to rent at below market prices for the foundation. She received a sentence of three years for each of those cases.
The three cases pertaining to offences in Naypyidaw are to be served concurrently.
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