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BANGKOK: A court in Myanmar on Friday sentenced ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi to three years\u2019 imprisonment with labor after finding her guilty of election fraud, adding more jail time to the 17 years she is already serving for other offenses prosecuted by the military government.
\nThe latest verdict also carries potentially significant political consequences for Suu Kyi\u2019s National League for Democracy party by lending support to the government\u2019s explicit threats to dissolve it before a new election the military has promised for 2023.
\nSuu Kyi\u2019s party won the the 2020 general election in a landslide victory, but the army seized power the following February and kept her from a second five-year term in office. The army contends it acted because of alleged widespread fraud in the polls though independent election observers did not find any major irregularities.
\nSome critics of Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, who led the takeover and is now Myanmar\u2019s top leader, believe he acted because the vote thwarted his own political ambitions.
\nThe military\u2019s seizure of power prompted widespread peaceful protests that were quashed with lethal force, triggering armed resistance that some UN experts now characterize as civil war.
\nSuu Kyi had already been sentenced to 17 years in prison on charges of illegally importing and possessing walkie-talkies, violating coronavirus restrictions, sedition and five counts of corruption. Many top members of her party and government also have been jailed, while others are in hiding or have fled abroad.
\nSuu Kyi\u2019s supporters and independent analysts say all the charges against her are politically motivated and an attempt to discredit her and legitimize the military\u2019s seizure of power while keeping her from returning to politics. All her trials have been held in closed courts.
\nFriday\u2019s ruling by the special court at the prison in the capital, Naypyitaw, was conveyed by a legal official who insisted on anonymity for fear of being punished by the authorities, who have restricted the release of information about Suu Kyi\u2019s trials. He said all the defendants appeared in good health.
\nHe said that ousted President Win Myint and the former minister of the president\u2019s office, Min Thu, both co-defendants in the election fraud case, each received sentences of three years. All three received prison terms with labor, a category of punishment that can include hard labor, such as road building, but in this case does not, he said. Lawyers will file appeals in the coming days, he added.
\nThe election fraud charge against Suu Kyi was filed in November by the Election Commission, whose members were replaced by the military after it seized power.
\nIt charged that Suu Kyi and her colleagues violated provisions in the constitution by allegedly influencing the old commission.
\nThe military-appointed commission accused them of being \u201cinvolved in electoral processes, election fraud and lawless actions\u201d related to the election.
\nThe commission claimed it has found more than 11 million irregularities in voter lists that could have let voters cast multiple ballots or commit other fraud.
\nIn separate proceedings, Suu Kyi is being tried on the charge of violating the Official Secrets Act, which carries a maximum sentence of 14 years, and seven counts of corruption charges, which carry a maximum sentence of 15 years each.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
BANGKOK: A court in Myanmar on Friday sentenced ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi to three years\u2019 imprisonment with labor after finding her guilty of election fraud, adding more jail time to the 17 years she is already serving for other offenses prosecuted by the military government. The latest verdict also carries potentially significant political […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":182332,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10221280388112155_325455220908133":"","twitter_917774835383787521_917774835383787521":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182331"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=182331"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182331\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":182333,"href":"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182331\/revisions\/182333"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/182332"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=182331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=182331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wardoon.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=182331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}