BANGKOK-
A military-ruled Myanmar court on Monday convicted the country’s ousted leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, on more corruption charges, adding six years to her previous sentence of 11 years in prison, a legal official said.
The trial was held behind closed doors, with no media or public access, and a gag order prohibited his lawyers from disclosing information about the trial.
In the four corruption cases decided on Monday, Suu Kyi is alleged to have abused her position to rent public land at below-market prices and built a residence with donations earmarked for charitable purposes. He received three-year sentences for each of the four counts, but the sentences on three of them will be served simultaneously, giving him a total of six more years in prison.
She denied all charges and her lawyers are expected to appeal.
She had already been sentenced to 11 years in prison for sedition, corruption and other charges in previous trials after the military overthrew her elected government and arrested her in February 2021.
Analysts say the numerous charges against her and her allies are an attempt to legitimize the military’s takeover while removing her from politics before the military holds the elections it has promised next year.
Suu Kyi and her co-defendants have denied all allegations and their lawyers are expected to file appeals in the coming days, said the legal officer, who asked not to be identified because he was not authorized to release information and feared punishment by authorities. .
Other leading members of Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party and her government have also been arrested and jailed, and authorities have suggested they may dissolve the party before the next election. The Association for Assistance to Political Prisoners, a civil society organization, says more than 12,000 people are in detention after being captured by security forces.
“The more the terrorist military council deliberately imprisons people’s leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi on various arbitrary charges, the stronger the people’s determination to destroy the military dictator becomes,” said Tun Myint, a member of the underground central working committee of the Suu Kyi match. .
The military seized power and arrested Suu Kyi on February 1, 2021, the day her party would have started a second five-year term in office after winning a landslide victory in the November 2020 general election. The army said it acted because there was massive electoral fraud, but independent election monitors found no major irregularities.
The army’s takeover sparked peaceful street protests across the country that security forces put down with lethal force, sparking armed resistance that some UN experts are now characterizing as a civil war. The military government has been accused of human rights abuses, including arbitrary arrests and killings, torture, and military raids that include airstrikes on civilians and the burning of entire villages.
The Association for Assistance to Political Prisoners says it has verified that 2,191 pro-democracy activists and other civilians have been killed in the military crackdown, though the true total is likely much higher.
Suu Kyi, 77, has been the face of opposition to military rule in Myanmar for more than three decades. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 while under house arrest.
His five years as leader of the civilian government were marked by repression and military rule despite the fact that it was Myanmar’s most democratic period since the 1962 coup.
Suu Kyi has been charged with a total of 11 counts under the Anti-Corruption Law, each of which is punishable by up to 15 years in prison and a fine.
In Monday’s verdicts, the legal officer said Suu Kyi received a three-year prison sentence for building a residence for herself in Naypyitaw, allegedly with money donated to a charitable foundation named after her mother that she chaired.
He received a three-year sentence for allegedly taking advantage of his position to rent property in Yangon, the country’s largest city, for the same foundation, the official said.
The other two cases decided Monday involved plots of land in Naypyitaw for which she allegedly abused her authority to rent at below-market prices to the foundation. She received a three-year sentence for each of those cases.
The three cases related to crimes in Naypyitaw must be served simultaneously.
Former Naypyitaw Mayor Myo Aung was a co-defendant in both cases related to granting permits to rent the land. Ye Min Oo, the former deputy mayor, is a co-defendant in one case and Min Thu, a former member of the Naypyitaw Development Committee, in the other. Each received three-year sentences.
The government’s Anti-Corruption Commission, which brought the case, argued that the rental rates agreed by the Naypyitaw Development Committee were lower than the rate set by the Ministry of Planning and Finance, so the rental agreement deprived the state of the income you should have received.
The High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell Fontelles, has called for the immediate release of Suu Kyi.
“I condemn the unjust sentencing of Aung San Suu Kyi to an additional six years of detention and call on the #Myanmar regime to immediately and unconditionally release her, as well as all political prisoners, and respect the will of the people.” tweeted.