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Myanmar Convicts Suu Kyi on New Charges08/15 06:09
BANGKOK (AP) -- A court in military-ruled Myanmar convicted the country's
ousted leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, on more corruption charges on Monday, adding
six years to her earlier 11-year prison sentence, a legal official said.
The trial was held behind closed doors, with no access for media or the
public, and her lawyers were forbidden by a gag order from revealing
information about the proceedings.
In the four corruption cases decided Monday, Suu Kyi was alleged to have
abused her position to rent public land at below market prices and to have
built a residence with donations meant for charitable purposes. She received
sentences of three years for each of the four counts, but the sentences for
three of them will be served concurrently, giving her a total of six more years
in prison.
She denied all the charges, and her lawyers are expected to appeal.
She already had been sentenced to 11 years in prison on sedition, corruption
and other charges at earlier trials after the military ousted her elected
government and detained her in February 2021.
Analysts say the numerous charges against her and her allies are an attempt
to legitimize the military's seizure of power while eliminating her from
politics before the military holds an election it has promised for next year.
Suu Kyi and her co-defendants have denied all the allegations and their
lawyers are expected to file appeals in the coming days, said the legal
official, who asked not to be identified because he was not authorized to
release information and feared punishment by the authorities.
Other top members of Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party and her
government have also been arrested and imprisoned, and the authorities have
suggested they might dissolve the party before the next election.
The army seized power and detained Suu Kyi on Feb. 1, 2021, the day when her
party would have started a second-five year term in office after it won a
landslide victory in a November 2020 general election. The army said it acted
because there had been massive voting fraud, but independent election observers
did not find any major irregularities.
The army's takeover sparked peaceful nationwide street protests that
security forces quashed with lethal force, triggering armed resistance that
some U.N. experts now characterize as civil war. The military government has
been accused of human rights abuses including arbitrary arrests and killings,
torture, and military sweeps that include air attacks on civilians and the
burning of entire villages.
Suu Kyi, 77, has been the face of opposition to military rule in Myanmar for
more than three decades. She won the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize while under house
arrest.
Her five years as its civilian government leader were marked by repression
and military dominance even though it was Myanmar's most democratic period
since a 1962 coup.
Suu Kyi has been charged with a total of 11 counts under the Anti-Corruption
Act, with each count punishable by up to 15 years in prison and a fine.
In Monday's verdicts, the legal official said Suu Kyi received a three-year
prison sentence for building a residence for herself in Naypyitaw, allegedly
with money donated for a charitable foundation named after her mother that she
chaired.
She received a three-year sentence for allegedly taking advantage of her
position to rent property in Yangon, the country's biggest city, for the same
foundation, the official said.
The two other cases decided Monday involved parcels of land in Naypyitaw for
which she allegedly abused her authority to rent at below market prices for the
foundation. She received a sentence of three years for each of those cases.
The three cases pertaining to offenses in Naypyitaw are to be served
concurrently.
The former mayor of Naypyitaw, Myo Aung, was a co-defendant in both cases
relating to granting permits to rent the land. Ye Min Oo, the former vice
mayor, is a co-defendant in one case and Min Thu, a former member of the
Naypyitaw Development Committee, in the other. Each received sentences of three
years.
The government Anti-Corruption Commission, which filed the case, had alleged
that the rental fees agreed upon by the Naypyitaw Development Committee were
lower than the rate fixed by the Ministry of Planning and Finance, so that the
rental agreement deprived the state of revenue it should have received.
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