A court has sentenced Myanmar’s ousted civilian leader, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, to five years in prison on charges of Wednesday after she was found guilty of corruption for having received about $1.3 million in gold bars and cash from a close political ally.
The conviction was largely based on the testimony of the former chief of staff in Yangon, Myanmar’s largest city, who publicly confessed last year that he had delivered $600,000 in cash and about 25 pounds of gold to her in a shopping bag. shop.
Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been on trial behind closed doors to the public and the media, has called the allegation “absurd”. The court banned her lawyers from speaking publicly about the case. Her ouster in Myanmar has shaken other Southeast Asian nations and is expected to be a major point of discussion. during President Biden’s meeting with leaders from the region in Washington next month.
Aung San Suu Kyi’s supporters, who are familiar with the legal proceedings, said the prosecution presented no evidence – other than witness testimony – that she received gold bars and currency.
Aung San Suu Kyi, who was arrested on February 1, 2021, when the military began orchestrating a coup, has been charged with 17 counts that her defenders say are fabricated.
She was previously convicted of five lesser counts and sentenced to six years in prison. If found guilty on all the remaining counts, including nine more corruption counts, she faces up to 163 years in prison.
Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said the verdict on “bogus corruption charges” showed the regime’s determination to silence her.
“Aung San Suu Kyi’s time as a free woman has effectively ended,” he said. “Destroying popular democracy in Myanmar also means removing Aung San Suu Kyi, and the government has no chance.”
Myanmar’s military, in power for nearly 50 years before allowing civilians to begin sharing power in 2010, took full control again last year and arrested hundreds of elected officials, most of them. Some of them are still in prison.
Massive protests broke out and the army responded by shooting civilians in the streets. A national strike against the government crippled the economy, and The healthcare system has collapsed in most of the country.
Since the coup, security forces have killed at least 1,798 civilians, and the regime are holding more than 10,300 political prisonersaccording to the Association for the Support of Political Prisoners.
In the countryside, the army has bombed rebel strongholds and burned villages, sending thousands into the jungle. Hundreds armed resistance groups formed to fight Tatmadawas the army is known in Myanmar.
Aung San Suu Kyi’s corruption case comes a year after leaders of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations met in Indonesia with the coup leader, Senior Lieutenant General Min Aung Hlaing , and lay out a five-point plan to end violence, initiate dialogue and deliver humanitarian aid.
But the authorities have not taken any measures yet, and ASEAN was ineffective in putting pressure on the regime.
The special envoys appointed by ASEAN were not allowed to meet Aung San Suu Kyi. The special envoys also did not meet the pro-democracy National Unity Government, formed by elected officials who had escaped arrest and leaders of ethnic groups that had long opposed the reunification. military rule.
The ASEAN MPs for Human Rights, a group of current and former members of parliaments, say the five-point consensus has failed and it is time for Southeast Asian leaders to take an approach. stronger force, including suspending Myanmar’s membership in ASEAN and imposing sanctions and travel bans on military leaders.
Learn about the coup in Myanmar
“The question for ASEAN leaders now is: Will you allow the military to continue to commit war crimes and crimes against humanity that threaten human security and economic development of the region in another year?” the group asked in a celebratory statement on Sunday.
Under the previous military rule, Aung San Suu Kyi became an international democracy icon and has experienced total 15 years under house arrest from 1989 to 2010. She became a Nobel Peace Prize Winner and led her party, the National League for Democracy, to three resounding victories but was only allowed to form a government once in 2015.
Banned by the military from becoming president, she accepts the post of state adviser. But she damaged her global reputation by not speaking out against it Tatmadaw’s brutal ethnic cleansing of Rohingya Muslims in 2017.
Since the coup, she has been under house arrest in undisclosed locations near the capital Naypyidaw. Her trial is being held at a house in Naypyidaw that has been converted into a courtroom. Aung San Suu Kyi, 76 years old, was previously convicted possessing walkie-talkies, violating Covid-19 protocols and inciting public unrest. Courts could sentence her to up to 15 years on corruption charges.
The main witness against her in the corruption trial was U Phyo Min Thein, a former Yangon minister who was also a prominent party leader and fundraiser.
In a televised confession Not long after the coup, he said he visited Aung San Suu Kyi at her home three times in 2017 and 2018 and each time brought her bag containing gold bars, hundreds of dollars in bills. la, silk items and expensive food.
He gave her gifts to win her favor, he said, and told her she could use the money for her “personal needs” to fund the National League for Democracy or to the Daw Khin Kyi Foundation, a charity she founded in her mother’s name.
