Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi jailed for 5 years
Courts in the military-ruled country have already sentenced the former Myanmar leader to six years in jail, yet her consolidated sentences could see her imprisoned for decades.
On Wednesday a junta court found her guilty of taking a $600,000 (₹4.6 Crores) bribe in the form of cash and gold bars from the former head of Yangon, Myanmar’s largest city and region.
Ms Suu Kyi has been detained at home since February 2021 when a military coup overthrew her government. The 76-year-old Nobel laureate has been accused of a bunch of criminal offences including voter fraud. She denies all of the accusations and rights groups have described the court trials as a joke. The close door hearings in the capital Nay Pyi Taw have been closed to the general public and media, and Ms Suu Kyi’s lawyer is forbidden from addressing the press.
The combined charges against her carry prison sentences that could total over 150 years. Before Wednesday’s ruling, Suu Kyi had been sentenced to six years in prison after being found guilty of violating the country’s coronavirus pandemic rules as well as illegally importing walkie-talkies.
Civil Rights groups, as well as the UN, have reviled the judicial procedures as a joke. Human Rights Watch has considered it a “courtroom circus of secret proceedings on bogus charges”. Myanmar’s military regime has excused such charges, saying Ms Suu Kyi has gotten fair trials and due legal process up until this point.
The military’s coup of last February in Myanmar, also called Burma, came after Ms Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) won general elections overwhelmingly. The military claimed voter fraud in the victory, but independent election observers said the elections were largely free and fair.
Myanmar has descended into a state of turmoil since last February’s military coup, which saw Suu Kyi removed from power and her government overthrown.
Suu Kyi has since been placed under house arrest, though she’s now detained in an undisclosed location after being convicted.
Protesters have opposed the military’s rule and crackdown, and some 1,700 people have been killed so far, according to local monitors.
