BREAKING: Ousted Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi sentenced to 5 years in prison in first corruption case, legal official says. https://t.co/lJY5QovqNi
— The Associated Press (@AP) April 27, 2022
The Associated Press
written by Staff
Tuesday April 26, 2022
BANGKOK (AP) — A court in military-ruled Myanmar convicted the country’s former leader Aung San Suu Kyi of corruption and sentenced her to five years in prison Wednesday.
Suu Kyi, who was ousted by an army takeover in February last year, had denied the allegation that she had accepted gold and hundreds of thousands of dollars given her as a bribe by a top political colleague. The maximum punishment for the offense is 15 years in prison and a fine.
Her supporters and independent legal experts have decried her prosecution as unjust and meant to remove the 76-year-old Suu Kyi from politics. She had already been sentenced to six years imprisonment in other cases.
News of the verdict came from a legal official who asked not to be identified because he is not authorized to release information. Suu Kyi’s trial in the capital Naypyitaw was closed to the public, and her lawyers were barred from speaking to media.
‘A court in military-ruled Myanmar sentenced deposed leader Aung San Suu Kyi to five years in jail on Wednesday after finding her guilty in the first of 11 corruption cases against her, according to a source with knowledge of proceedings.’ https://t.co/f0PE9PbXOI
— AnObserver (@WatchingEurasia) April 27, 2022
Reuters News
written by Staff
Tuesday April 27, 2022
A court in military-ruled Myanmar sentenced deposed leader Aung San Suu Kyi to five years in jail on Wednesday after finding her guilty in the first of 11 corruption cases against her, according to a source with knowledge of proceedings.
The Nobel laureate, who led Myanmar for five years before being forced from power in a coup in early 2021, has been charged with at least 18 offences, which carry combined maximum jail terms of nearly 190 years if found guilty.
The judge in the capital Naypyitaw handed down the verdict within moments of the court convening, said the source, who declined to be identified because the trial is being held behind closed doors, with information restricted.
The case centred on allegations that Suu Kyi, 76, accepted 11.4 kg (402 oz) of gold and cash payments totalling $600,000 from her protege-turned-accuser, former Yangon chief minister Phyo Min Thein.
Suu Kyi had denied the charges and called the allegations "absurd".
It was not immediately clear if Suu Kyi would be transferred to a prison. She has been held in an undisclosed location, where junta leader Min Aung Hlaing said she could remain after earlier guilty verdicts in other cases.
The international community has dismissed the trials as farcical and has demanded her immediate release.
The military says Suu Kyi is on trial because she committed crimes and is being given due process by an independent judiciary. A spokesman for the junta was not immediately available for comment.
Since her arrest on the morning of the Feb. 1 coup last year, Suu Kyi has been charged with multiple crimes from violations of electoral and state secrets laws to incitement and corruption, accusations her supporters say are trumped up to kill off any chance of a political comeback.
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