Myanmar
Suu Kyi sentenced to further prison term for corruption
The ousted head of government of Myanmar: Aung San Suu Kyi. photo
© Peter Dejong/AP/dpa
The ousted head of government and Nobel Peace Prize winner had already been sentenced to a total of around eleven years in prison in several other cases. Now the charge against Suu Kyi is corruption.
A court controlled by the military junta in Myanmar has sentenced the ousted Prime Minister Aung San Suu Kyi to another six years in prison. The sentence against the 77-year-old was imposed for four cases of corruption, said sources familiar with the process from the German Press Agency.
Accordingly, the Nobel Peace Prize winner was found guilty of, among other things, embezzling funds from a charitable foundation that Suu Kyi had founded on behalf of her mother. Suu Kyi denied the allegations. In several other cases, the Nobel Peace Prize winner had previously been sentenced to a total of around eleven years in prison.
The trials are among a series of 18 charges, including 11 for corruption. Each charge carries a sentence of up to 15 years in prison. In April, a court sentenced Suu Kyi to five years in prison in her first corruption case, for allegedly accepting gold and a $600,000 bribe from a politician. A few months earlier, she had already been sentenced to a total of six years in prison in minor cases.
The 77-year-old has been in solitary confinement in a prison in the capital Naypyidaw since June after being placed under house arrest in the wake of the February 2021 military coup. The proceedings take place behind closed doors. Suu Kyi’s lawyers are not allowed to speak to the media. Human rights activists speak of a show trial.
The generals staged a coup in February 2021. They justified the coup with alleged fraud in the November 2020 election, which Suu Kyi had won outright. They presented no evidence. Since then, the former Burma has descended into chaos and violence.