Myanmar’s Suu Kyi, 77, is sentenced to three years’ jail and hard labour for ‘electoral fraud’
Democratic leader Aung San Suu Kyi sentenced to three years jail in Myanmar
Jailed for ‘electoral fraud’ over 2020 polls which her party won in a landslides77-year old Nobel laureate sentenced to ‘hard labour’ yet health appeared good
A Myanmar junta court sentenced deposed leader Aung San Suu Kyi to three years in jail on Friday for election fraud over 2020 polls which her party won in a landslide.
Suu Kyi was ‘sentenced to three years’ incarceration with hard labour’, a person with knowledge of the matter claimed, adding that the Nobel laureate, 77, appeared to be in good health.
Detained since a putsch last year, Suu Kyi has already been convicted of corruption and a clutch of other offences by a closed junta court and sentenced to 17 years in prison.
Journalists have been prohibited from proceedings in the military-built capital Naypyidaw and her lawyers have been forbidden from speaking to the press.
A Myanmar junta court convicted deposed leader Aung San Suu Kyi (pictured) to three years in jail on Friday for electoral fraud over 2020 polls which her party won in a landslide
The military suspected significant voting fraud during the November 2020 election, won resoundingly by Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD), although international observers said the poll was mainly free and fair.
The military has subsequently invalidated the result and stated it identified more than 11 million cases of voter fraud.
Last month junta chief Min Aung Hlaing said the military was being ‘lenient’ on Suu Kyi and might have taken ‘more serious actions’ against her.
Myanmar was thrust into turmoil following the military’s power grab last year, with swaths of the country destroyed by violence and the economy in freefall.
More than 2,200 people have been dead and nearly 15,000 detained in the military’s crackdown on opposition since it seized power, according to a local monitoring group.
Aung San Suu Kyi (left) and jailed president Win Myint (right) photographed on May 24, 2021 during their first court hearing in Naypyidaw after the military detained them in a coup on February 1.
A protester holds up a placard calling for the release of Aung San Suu Kyi during a demonstration against the military coup at in front of the Central Bank of Myanmar in Yangon
The junta proclaimed a state of emergency after overthrowing Suu Kyi’s administration, and has previously said elections would be held and the state of emergency dissolved by August 2023.
In a speech televised last month Min Aung Hlaing did not give a date for fresh polls but said they could only be held when the country was ‘calm and stable’.
He also suggested ‘change’ to the election system was needed, including combining the first-past-the-post system – under which Suu Kyi’s NLD has won landslide majorities – with proportional representation.
Last month the junta-stacked Union Election Commission stated the country’s 92 registered political parties would have to ask for permission if they sought to contact foreign groups or individuals.
‘Political parties need to obey the law,’ the commission stated.
‘If they fail to do so their party’s registration will be dissolved.’