Junta-controlled court sentences Aung San Suu Kyi for corruption

The worldwide group and human rights teams condemned the trial as unfair and the 5 yr sentence as politically motivated.

By AFP

A junta-controlled courtroom on Wednesday sentenced Daw Aung San Suu Kyi to 5 years in jail for corruption, a part of a barrage of legal instances that might see the deposed civilian chief jailed for many years.

Aung San Suu Kyi has been in navy custody since a coup ousted her authorities in February final yr and plunged the nation into turmoil.

Within the newest case, the Nobel laureate was accused of accepting a bribe of $600,000 in money and gold bars from a political ally, ousted Yangon chief minister U Phyo Min Thein.

After two days of delays, the particular courtroom within the military-built capital Nay Pyi Taw handed down its verdict and sentence early Wednesday.

“Concerning taking gold and {dollars} from U Phyo Min Thein, the courtroom sentenced her to 5 years’ imprisonment,” junta spokesperson Zaw Min Tun informed AFP.

“She will probably be underneath home arrest. I have no idea whether or not she requested for enchantment. They’re working in response to the authorized approach. So far as I do know, she’s in good well being.”

Native media, citing unnamed sources near the courtroom, later reported she plans to enchantment. 

Wednesday’s sentencing earned rebukes from overseas.

The European Union slammed the trial as “politically motivated” and “yet one more main setback for democracy in Myanmar because the navy coup.”

On the United Nations, deputy spokesman Farhan Haq stated Aung San Suu Kyi was not afforded a good listening to, and that UN Secretary-Common Antonio Guterres “desires the entire political prisoners – and that features Aung San Suu Kyi – to be launched.”

The US Senate International Relations Committee for its half branded the sentencing a “travesty” and slammed the junta’s “brazen persecution of the democratic leaders of Myanmar.”

Aung San Suu Kyi nonetheless faces a raft of different legal fees, together with violating the Official Secrets and techniques Act, corruption and electoral fraud, and might be jailed for greater than 100 years if convicted on all counts.

The 76-year-old had already been sentenced to 6 years in jail for incitement in opposition to the navy, breaching COVID-19 guidelines and breaking a telecommunications legislation – though she’s going to stay in custody whereas she fights different fees.

Journalists have been barred from attending the courtroom hearings and Aung San Suu Kyi’s attorneys have been banned from chatting with the media.

She stays confined in an undisclosed location within the capital, together with her hyperlink to the surface world restricted to transient pre-trial conferences with attorneys.

“The times of Aung San Suu Kyi as a free girl are successfully over,” Mr Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch, informed AFP.

“Destroying widespread democracy in Myanmar additionally means eliminating Aung San Suu Kyi, and the junta is leaving nothing to probability.”

Turmoil, investor flight

The coup sparked widespread protests and unrest which the navy sought to crush by drive.

In keeping with a neighborhood monitoring group, the crackdown has left greater than 1,700 civilians lifeless and seen some 13,000 arrested.

Aung San Suu Kyi has been the face of Myanmar’s democratic hopes for greater than 30 years, however her earlier six-year sentence already meant she is prone to miss elections the junta says it plans to carry by subsequent yr.

Impartial Myanmar analyst David Mathieson stated the junta was utilizing the legal instances to make Aung San Suu Kyi “politically irrelevant”.

“That is simply one other squalid step in solidifying the coup,” he informed AFP.  “That is politically motivated pure and easy.”

Lots of her political allies have additionally been arrested because the coup, with one chief minister sentenced to 75 years in jail.

A tranche of ousted lawmakers from her Nationwide League for Democracy fashioned a parallel Nationwide Unity Authorities (NUG) in a bid to undermine the junta’s legitimacy.

The NUG has not been recognised by any overseas authorities, however neither has the junta.

Quite a few anti-coup armed teams referred to as Individuals’s Defence Forces have sprung up across the nation to take the struggle to the junta, and analysts say their effectiveness has shocked the military.

Final week junta chief Min Aung Hlaing referred to as for peace talks with Myanmar’s long-established ethnic insurgent teams – which management giant areas and have battled the navy for many years. Some have aligned themselves with the NUG because the coup.

The turmoil that has engulfed Myanmar following the coup has spooked overseas buyers who flocked to the nation after the daybreak of democracy round 2011.