Author: Grant Parker
Associated Press
BANGKOK (AP) – A court in military-ruled Myanmar convicted the country’s ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Aug. 15 on more corruption charges, a legal official said, putting her 11 years before her death sentence. The sentence was increased by 6 years.
The trial was held behind closed doors with no access to the media or the public, and her lawyers were barred from revealing information about the proceedings.
In four corruption cases that have been decided, Aung San Suu Kyi has been accused of abusing her power to rent out public land below market prices and to use donations to build homes for charitable purposes. She was sentenced to three years in prison for each of the four counts, but three of the sentences will run concurrently, giving her a total of six years in prison.
She has denied all charges and her lawyers are expected to appeal.
She had been sentenced to 11 years in prison at an earlier trial on sedition, corruption and other charges after the military overthrew her elected government and detained her in February 2021.
Analysts say the numerous charges against her and her allies are designed to legitimize the military’s seizure of power while keeping her out of politics ahead of the military’s pledge to hold elections next year.
Aung San Suu Kyi and her co-defendants have denied all charges and their lawyers are expected to appeal in the coming days, the legal official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. .
Aung San Suu Kyi’s NLD party and other senior members of her government have also been arrested and imprisoned, with authorities suggesting they may disband the party before the next election.
The army seized power and detained Aung San Suu Kyi on February 1, 2021, the day her party will start her second five-year term after a landslide victory in November 2020 general elections. The military said it took action because of massive voting fraud, but independent election observers did not find any major irregularities.
The military takeover sparked peaceful street protests across the country, which security forces crushed with deadly force, sparking armed resistance that some UN experts now describe as civil war. The junta has been accused of human rights abuses, including arbitrary arrests and killings, torture and military sweeps, including airstrikes on civilians and the burning of entire villages.
Aung San Suu Kyi, 77, has been Myanmar’s voice against military rule for more than three decades. She was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 while under house arrest.
Although it was Myanmar’s most democratic period since a 1962 coup, her five years as head of the civilian government were marked by repression and military rule.
Under the Anti-Corruption Act, Aung San Suu Kyi has been charged with a total of 11 offences, each of which carries a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison and a fine.
In the Aug. 15 sentencing, the legal official said Aung San Suu Kyi was sentenced to three years in prison for building a home for herself in Nay Pyi Taw, which she allegedly donated to a charitable fund named after her mother Yes, the foundation is chaired by her.
She was sentenced to three years in prison for allegedly using her position to rent out properties for the same foundation in Yangon, the country’s largest city, the official said.
The other two cases involved a piece of land in Nay Pyi Taw, where she allegedly abused her power to rent out the foundation at below-market rates. She was sentenced to three years in prison for each of these cases.
Three cases related to crimes in Nay Pyi Taw will be served simultaneously.
Former Nay Pyi Taw mayor Miao Aung is a co-defendant in two cases related to the granting of land lease permits. Former deputy mayor Ye Min Oo is a co-defendant in one case, while Mintu, a former member of the Nay Pyi Taw Development Committee, is a co-defendant in another case. Each was sentenced to three years in prison.
The government’s anti-corruption commission, which filed the lawsuit, claimed that the rent agreed by the Nay Pyi Taw Development Board was lower than the rent set by the plan and the Ministry of Finance, so the lease agreement deprived the state of revenue. should have received.
The EU’s high representative for foreign affairs and security policy, Josep Borrell Fontelles, called for the immediate release of Aung San Suu Kyi.
“I condemn the unjust sentence of Aung San Suu Kyi, detain her for another six years, and call on the (Hash) Myanmar regime to release her and all political prisoners immediately and unconditionally, and respect the will of the people,” he tweeted. road.
