On Wednesday, a court in Myanmar sentenced its former premier, longtime political activist, and Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi has been sentenced to five years’ imprisonment in a corruption case against her. She has already been convicted in other cases and has been awarded imprisonment of six years. The present case is the first among 11 such cases that have been brought against her.
it is allged that she illicitly received 11.4 kg of gold and cash totalling $600,000 from former Yangon chief minister Phyo Min Thein, who was once her protege and close aide.
The sentence was announced in a ‘secret’ trial where media and civil society representatives were not allowed to attend. As per Reuters, the sentence was announced very shortly after the court convened. At present, she is held at an undisclosed location, with the head of the country’s military government Senior General Min Aung Hlaing saying she could remain there after guilty verdicts in previous cases.
The trials have been dismissed as unfair and illegitimate by countries around the world, and there have been persistent calls for the release of Suu Kyi, who is considered by many as a political icon for opposing military rule in the country for over two decades. The military counters this by saying that she has been given a proper trial as per due process.
2021 Myanmar Military Coup
Myanmar has a long history of military rule, and the latest military coup in February 2021 was carried out against the National Unity Government, a civilian coalition ruling in a constitutional arrangement that still significantly favoured the military.
Aung San Suu Kyi was deposed as its head of state, leading to massive civil unrest and crackdowns as reprisals. This was preceded by a major genocidal offensive against the country’s Rohingya Muslim population in Rakhine state which is still ongoing.
Widespread rights violations including torture, repressing protests, extrajudicial killing and arbitrary imprisonment and convictions, along with severe restrictions on press freedom, are being reported ever since the coup was successfully launched.
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