Irrawaddy-Aug 15
A Myanmar junta court sentenced the country’s ousted leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi to an additional six years in prison on Monday, finding her guilty of further corruption charges, relating to a charity she founded in memory of her late mother. In the four corruption cases decided on Monday, a special court in Naypyitaw Prison, where Suu Kyi is being held in solitary confinement, said that the 77-year old leader of the National League for Democracy Party misused her power to rent public land at below market prices and to build a residence with donations intended for Suu Kyi’s charity, the Daw Khin Kyi Foundation. Sources close to the court said Daw Aung San Suu Kyi complained that the verdict was unfair and has asked her lawyers to appeal. Since her arrest following last year’s coup, the military regime has filed 20 charges against Suu Kyi, including 13 corruption cases. She faces a potential combined prison term of 164 years if found guilty of all 20 charges, with the regime seemingly determined to ensure that their politically-motivated charges keep Suu Kyi behind bars for the rest of her life. So far, she has been sentenced to 17 years in jail on six charges. In May, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi was sentenced to five years in prison for accepting bribes from the then Yangon Region Chief Minister U Phyo Min Thein, who testified in October last year that he gave her seven viss (around 11.4kg) of gold and US$600,000 in 2017 and 2018. The verdict was based only U Phyo Min Thein’s testimony and there is no evidence of the gold or dollars being received by Suu Kyi. Read more at: https://www.irrawaddy.com/news/burma/myanmar-regime-sentences-suu-kyi-to-a-further-six-years-in-prison-on-corruption-charges.html
