Myanmar court levied corruption charges against Nobel laureate Suu Kyi; Sentenced for 6 years

Aung San Suu Kyi’s six-year sentence means she will most likely miss the elections scheduled for next year by the junta.

A court in military-ruled Myanmar sentenced deposed leader Aung San Suu Kyi to six years in prison on Monday after finding her guilty in four corruption cases.

The 77-year-old Nobel laureate and figurehead of Myanmar’s opposition to military rule has been charged with at least 18 offences ranging from graft to election violations, with maximum prison terms totalling nearly 190 years.

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According to the source, she was found guilty on Monday of misusing funds from the Daw Khin Kyi Foundation, an organisation she founded to promote health and education, to build a home and leasing government-owned land at a discounted rate.

Suu Kyi, who is being held in solitary confinement in the capital Naypyitaw, has previously been sentenced to 11 years in prison.

Myanmar has been in turmoil since last year when the military deposed an elected government led by Suu Kyi’s party following a general election and launched a brutal crackdown on dissent.

Tens of thousands of people have been imprisoned, and many have been tortured, beaten, or killed in what the UN calls crimes against humanity.

The international community has sanctioned the military and called Suu Kyi’s secret trials farcical.

The daughter of the leader of Myanmar’s independence movement led the country for five years during a brief period of tentative reforms before being deposed in a February 2021 coup.

For five of the last six decades, the military has ruled the country.