A court controlled by the military junta that seized power in Myanmar in February 2021 sentenced former civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Wednesday to a further five years in prison for allegedly taking bribes in dollars and gold.
The decision adds to a series of obscure convictions handed down in closed-door trials by a judiciary aligned with the dictatorship established in the Asian country.
The aim, according to Suu Kyi supporters and international observers, is to bury the civilian leader’s political career. In practice, the 76-year-old Nobel Peace Prize winner risks ending her life in military custody.
In December last year, the deposed leader was sentenced to two years for inciting dissent and violating restrictions imposed to contain Covid-19. A month later, she received a new sentence of four years for illegally importing communications equipment.
In the case in which she was convicted on Wednesday, she is accused of having received US$ 600 thousand (just over R$ 3 million, at the current exchange rate) and 11.4 kg of gold as a bribe from the former chief minister of Rangoon, the Myanmar’s largest city.
Suu Kyi has been charged with at least 18 crimes since she was detained in the February 1, 2021 military coup. If convicted with the maximum sentence in all cases, her sentence can be up to nearly 190 years.
In a court in Myanmar’s capital, Naypyitaw, the judge quickly handed down the ruling against the civilian leader and gave no explanation, anonymous sources told AFP and Reuters news agencies.
In addition to the trial taking place behind closed doors, away from the eyes of the independent press and international observers, Suu Kyi’s lawyers are subject to a warrant of silence and are prohibited from making public comments on the case on the grounds that they could destabilize the country.
According to agency sources, Suu Kyi participated in all of the hearings and is expected to appeal Wednesday’s decision. Since she was detained more than a year ago, she has been under house arrest, although the place where her sentence is served has not been revealed by the military junta.
For Phil Robertson, deputy director of the Asian arm of Human Rights Watch, Suu Kyi’s days as a free woman are effectively over.
“Myanmar’s junta and the country’s courts are walking in tandem to arrest Aung San Suu Kyi for what could be the equivalent of a life sentence given her advanced age,” he said.
Nay Phone Latt, a former employee of Suu Kyi’s party, said that the court’s decisions are temporary because the military regime is unlikely to last much longer.
“We do not recognize the decisions, legislation or judiciary of the terrorist junta,” said Latt, who belongs to the shadow government of National Unity, which declared a popular uprising against the military regime. “I don’t care how long they want to sentence, whether it’s a year, two years, or whatever they want. It won’t last.”
Myanmar is experiencing multiple crises, in which at least 1,700 people have been killed and more than 13,000 injured during anti-regime protests, according to the Myanmar Association for Assistance to Political Prisoners. There is also a strong repression of the free press, which further limits the possibility of an independent investigation of events in the country.
The daughter of a Myanmar independence hero, the civilian leader, who received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991, had already spent 15 years under house arrest between 1989 and 2010. After her release, she led her party to a landslide victory in 2015. November last year, the National League for Democracy (LND) won the elections again, beating the party supported by the Armed Forces.
The military, however, alleged fraud in the results – although independent observers found no irregularity – and took power hours before the legislature took office, through the deposition and arrest of Suu Kyi, President Win Myint and several other leaders. civilians.
