The deposed former leader and nobel of the Burmese peace, Aung San Suu Kyi, was sentenced on Monday to four years in prison for incitement and violating the norms of COVID-19 in the first sentence since the coup of last February 1, informed sources close to the case.
Suu Kyi, 76 years old and facing several lawsuits, was sentenced at a hearing in the capital by a court that imposed the same sentence on the deposed president, Win Myint, and a two-year prison sentence for the former governor of Naipyidó, Myo Aung. Sources close to the trial, who cannot be identified for fear of reprisals by the military junta, specified that Suu Kyi’s sentence includes two years for incitement, according to article 505b of the Penal Code, and another two years for violating the laws of pandemic emergency.
The UN, numerous governments such as the United States, the United Kingdom and Japan, and the European Union have called for the release of Suu Kyi and others detained by the Burmese military junta led by General Min Aung Hlaing. A dozen cases filed after the seizure of power by the uniformed are pending against the Nobel Peace Prize, including corruption accusations, bypassing telecommunications regulations and violating the Official Secrets law, all punishable by jail time.
Suu Kyi’s lawyers point out that their client denies all the accusations, although weeks ago the military junta imposed a ban on the lawyers from speaking to the media. The coup d’état plunged Burma into a deep political, social and economic crisis, and opened a spiral of violence with new civilian militias that have exacerbated the guerrilla war that the country has been experiencing for decades.
The Army justifies the coup for an alleged massive fraud during the general elections November 2020, whose result has been annulled and in which Suu Kyi’s party swept, as it did in 2015, with the endorsement of international observers. At least 1,303 people have died as a result of the brutal repression by police and soldiers since the coup, who have shot to kill peaceful protesters, according to the daily reports of the Association for the Assistance of Political Prisoners, which also figures at more than 10,000 opponents arrested, including Suu Kyi.
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