MYANMAR, Jan 10, (Asia Free Press): Myanmar junta court on Monday sentenced Aung San Suu Kyi, former ruler of the country, to four more years in prison as she was convicted of three criminal charges, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).
In December last year, the Nobel laureate was convicted on two other charges for incitement and breaching COVID-19 rules while campaigning and was sentenced four years in prison.
She was first detained on February 1, 2021, when her government was forced out in an early morning coup, ending Myanmar’s short-lived experiment with democracy.
The generals’ power grab triggered widespread dissent, which security forces sought to quell with mass detentions and bloody crackdowns in which more than 1,400 civilians have been killed, the report said quoting a local monitoring group.
Junta spokesperson Major General Zaw Min Tun confirmed the verdicts and sentences and told AFP, Suu Kyi would remain under house arrest while other cases against her proceed.
Junta chief Min Aung Hlaing cut the sentence to two years and said she could serve her term under house arrest in the capital Naypyidaw.
The report further says that journalists have been barred from attending hearings, and Suu Kyi’s lawyers have been muzzled from speaking to the media.
Under a previous junta regime, Suu Kyi spent long spells under house arrest in her family mansion in Yangon, Myanmar’s largest city.
Today, she is confined to an undisclosed location in the capital, with her link to the outside world limited to brief pre-trial meetings with her lawyers, the report said.
Besides Monday’s cases, she is also facing multiple counts of corruption, each of which is punishable by 15 years in jail, and of violating the official secrets act.
In November, she and 15 other officials, including Myanmar’s president Win Myint, were also charged with alleged electoral fraud during the 2020 polls.
Pertinently, many of her political allies have been arrested, with one chief minister sentenced to 75 years in jail after military official took charge of the country.
