Myanmar court upholds Aung San Suu Kyi’s sentence for corruption to 33 years

A military court of Burma sentenced on Friday Aung San Suu Kyi to another seven years in prison for corruption, raising the final sentence of the process against the ousted civil leader to 33 years, indicated a judicial source.

The famous opponent of military power, 77 years old, although in “good health” according to this source, could end a life marked by her fight for democracy in prison.

The winner of Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 she has been detained since the military coup of February 1, 2021, which ended a brief democratic period in this turbulent Southeast Asian country.

A court in the capital Naypyidaw, located in the prison where the isolated leader is being held, found her guilty this Friday of the last five corruption cases pending against her.

One of them corresponds to the purchase and maintenance of a helicopter that caused “a loss to the State”, indicated the judicial source.

“All her cases are finished and there are no more charges against her,” explained this source, who requested anonymity because she is not authorized to speak to the media.

The civil leader will appeal the sentence, he added.

UN resolution

Corruption, electoral fraud, violation of state secrets, anti-covid restrictions… Since the start of the legal proceedings in June 2021, Aung San Suu Kyi has received multiple convictions.

The end of this 18-month trial, described as a simulation by human rights groups, opens a new period of uncertainty in Burma, with the promise of the elections board in 2023.

The country’s last two legislative elections in 2015 and 2020 had been won by the National League for Democracy (NLD), the party founded by Aung San Suu Kyi in the late 1980s.

The army, which had imposed its power for decades, justified the coup by alleged electoral fraud, although international observers said the process was fair.

The UN Security Council called for Suu Kyi’s immediate release in December, in its first resolution on Burma in decades.

This call was made possible thanks to the abstention of China and Russia, regular backers of Naypyidaw, who waived their right to veto.

The junta accused the UN of wanting to “destabilize” the country.

Since the coup, the civilian leader could only be seen in a handful of grainy photos taken by state media in an empty courtroom.

What to do with Suu Kyi?

The corruption allegations are “ridiculous,” said Htwe Htwe Thein, an associate professor at Curtin University in Australia.

“Nothing in Aung San Suu Kyi’s leadership, government or lifestyle suggests the slightest bit of corruption,” he added.

For Richard Horsey, of the International Crisis Group cabinet, “the question will be what to do now with Aung San Suu Kyi (…) Whether to let her serve her sentence in some kind of house arrest or allow limited access to her for foreign envoys.”

Still very popular in Burma, Suu Kyi’s international image was tarnished by her inability to defend the Rohingya Muslim minority, victims of army abuses between 2016 and 2017, described by the United States as genocide.

Since the coup, Myanmar has been plunged into chaos, with daily clashes between the army and militias who accuse each other of killing hundreds of civilians.

A local NGO estimates the fatalities of military repression at more than 2,600 people. Several human rights groups accused the army of bombing civilian areas, which constitutes a war crime.

The army counted 4,000 dead civilians on its side.

Junta chief Min Aung Hlaing said the regime plans to hold elections in 2023, when the country is “peaceful and stable.”