Tag Archives: Aung

Myanmar court extends Aung San Suu Kyi’s prison sentence to 26 years



CNN
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A court in military-run Myanmar has sentenced Aung San Suu Kyi, the country’s deposed former leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner, to three additional years in jail for corruption, a source familiar with the case told CNN, extending her total prison term to 26 years.

Wednesday’s verdict is the latest in a string of punishments meted out against the 77-year-old, a figurehead of opposition to decades of military rule who led Myanmar for five years before being forced from power in a coup in early 2021.

Suu Kyi was found guilty of receiving $500,000 in bribes from a local tycoon, a charge she denied, according to the source. Her lawyers have said the series of crimes leveled against her are politically motivated.

Suu Kyi is currently being held in solitary confinement at a prison in the capital Naypyidaw.

Last month, Suu Kyi was found guilty of electoral fraud and sentenced to three years in prison with hard labor, in a trial related to the November 2020 general election that her National League for Democracy won in a landslide, defeating a party created by the military.

It was the first time Suu Kyi had been sentenced to hard labor since the 2021 military coup. She was given the same punishment in a separate trial under a previous administration in 2009 but that sentence was commuted.

Suu Kyi has also previously been found guilty of offenses ranging from graft to election violations.

Rights groups have repeatedly expressed concerns about the punishment of pro-democracy activists in the country since the military seized power.

Also sentenced Wednesday was Toru Kubota, 26, a Japanese journalist who received an additional three years in prison on charges of violating an immigration law, Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs told CNN.

That sentence comes in addition to the 10 years Kubota received last week on charges of sedition and violating a law on electronic communications. Those charges relate to his filming of an anti-government protest in July, a Japanese diplomat said.

The ministry said the Japanese government will continue to ask Myanmar authorities to release Kubota “at the earliest possible date.”

Kubota was arrested by plainclothes police in Yangon, where he was filming a documentary that he had been working on for several years, according to a Change.org petition calling for his release.

In July, the military junta executed two prominent pro-democracy activists and two other men accused of terrorism, following a trial condemned by the UN and rights groups.

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Aung San Suu Kyi: Myanmar court sentences former leader to 6 more years, source says

The latest verdict in the series of secretive trials against the Nobel laureate takes her total jail term to 17 years and comes as the UN’s Special Envoy on Myanmar traveled to the country on Monday to address the “deteriorating (rights) situation.”

Suu Kyi, who turned 77 in June, has previously been found guilty of multiple offenses ranging from graft to election violations.

On Monday she was found guilty of misusing funds from a charity and leasing government-owned land at discounted prices, according to the CNN source.

Suu Kyi is being held in solitary confinement at a prison in the capital Naypyitaw and has denied all charges against her.
International rights groups and world leaders have expressed concern about the deteriorating state of human rights in Myanmar and dismissed ongoing trials against Suu Kyi, calling them “unfair and unjust.”

“The Myanmar military junta’s unjust conviction and sentencing of Aung San Suu Kyi is part of its methodical assault on human rights around the country,” said Elaine Pearson, acting Asia director at Human Rights Watch (HRW), in a statement Monday.

“The military’s willingness to forcibly disappear the country’s high-profile civilian leader reveals the brutality that lesser-known political prisoners face,” Pearson said.

Meanwhile, UN’s Special Envoy on Myanmar, Noeleen Heyzer, traveled to Myanmar on Monday to address the “deteriorating situation and immediate concerns,” the UN said in a statement.

“The Special Envoy’s visit follows her extensive consultations with actors from across the political spectrum, civil society as well as communities affected by the ongoing conflict,” the statement said.

CNN’s Irene Nasser and Richard Roth contributed reporting.

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Myanmar sentences lawmaker from Aung San Suu Kyi’s party to death | Military News

Military court finds NLD’s Phyo Zeyar Thaw and activist Kyaw Min Yu guilty under terrorism laws in harshest sentences since coup a year ago.

A closed military court in Myanmar has sentenced a lawmaker from Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) party and a prominent democracy activist to death.

The NLD’s Phyo Zeyar Thaw, who was arrested in November, was sentenced to death for offences under the country’s Counterterrorism Law, a statement from the generals said.

Prominent democracy activist Kyaw Min Yu, better known as Ko Jimmy, was given the same sentence, the statement added, providing pictures of both men.

They were found guilty of offences involving explosives, bombings and financing terrorism, but details were sketchy because of the blackout on proceedings. Min Yu’s wife, Nilar Thein, in October denied the allegations lodged against her husband.

Myanmar was plunged into crisis when army chief Min Aung Hlaing deposed the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi and seized power for the military on February 1 last year.

The coup prompted mass protests and a civil disobedience movement, and thousands have been arrested in the military’s attempt to crack down on dissent. Almost 1,500 civilians are estimated to have been killed.

Phyo Zeyar Thaw and Kyaw Min Yu have both been jailed by previous military regimes and are among the most prominent activists to be given death sentences since the coup. Myanmar has not carried out an execution for decades.

‘Tip-off’

 

Phyo Zeyar Thaw, whose real name is Maung Kyaw, was arrested last November at an apartment in Yangon, the country’s biggest city, following a “tip-off and cooperation from dutiful citizens”, according to the military.

Known as a hip-hop pioneer, Phyo Zeyar Thaw was elected to parliament as part of the country’s move towards democracy in 2015.

The military said he had two pistols, ammunition and an M-16 rifle in his possession at the time of his arrest, and accused him of orchestrating several attacks on security forces.

Kyaw Min Yu, who rose to prominence during Myanmar’s 1988 student uprising was arrested in an overnight raid in October.

Part of the so-called “88 Generation” movement that challenged Myanmar’s previous military rulers, he was accused of inciting unrest with his social media posts.

Aung San Suu Kyi, 76, is facing a slew of charges, including violating the country’s official secrets law.

She has already been sentenced to six years for illegally importing and possessing walkie-talkies, flouting coronavirus rules and incitement against the military.



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In Myanmar, Aung San Suu Kyi Sentenced to 4 More Years

Myanmar’s ousted civilian leader, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, was convicted Monday and sentenced to four years in prison for possessing walkie-talkies in her home and for violating Covid-19 protocols.

Altogether, Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi, 76, has been sentenced to a total of six years in prison so far, with many more charges pending against her.

Monday’s guilty verdict on three counts comes on top of her Dec. 5 conviction on charges of inciting public unrest and a separate count of breaching Covid-19 protocols. Initially sentenced to four years on those charges, that sentence was cut in half by the army commander in chief, Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, the leader of the Feb. 1 coup that forced her from office.

As the first anniversary of the coup approaches, the court found Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi guilty of violating Myanmar’s import-export law and its telecommunications law by possessing the communication devices. Her defenders have said the walkie-talkies belonged to her security detail, and that the charges were bogus and politically motivated.

She was sentenced to two years on the Covid protocol, two years on the charge of importing the walkie-talkies, and to one year for violating the telecommunications law. The sentences connected to the walkie-talkie charges are to run concurrently.

Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi has been held incommunicado in a house in Naypyidaw, the capital of Myanmar. Amnesty International called the walkie-talkie charges trumped up, saying “they suggest the military is desperate for a pretext to embark on a witch-hunt and intimidate anyone who challenges them.”

The charge of importing the devices — the first of many charges brought against her — was filed on Feb. 3, two days after the coup, and the court proceedings have lasted nearly a year.

The guilty verdict for violating Covid protocols stemmed from an episode during the 2020 election campaign in which she stood outside, in a face mask and face shield, with her dog, Taichito, at her side, and waved to supporters passing by in vehicles. The same incident was the basis of her conviction on a nearly identical charge in December.

Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi faces at least seven more charges — including five counts of corruption — with a potential maximum sentence of 89 years if she were to be found guilty on all remaining charges.

Human Rights Watch said the military regime was making itself appear ridiculous by accumulating convictions on flimsy, politically motivated charges.

“The Myanmar junta’s courtroom circus of secret proceedings on bogus charges is all about steadily piling up more convictions against Aung San Suu Kyi so that she will remain in prison indefinitely,” said Phil Robertson, the group’s deputy Asia director.

Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi was the Nobel Peace Laureate in 1991 and led her party, the National League for Democracy, to landslide victories three times between 1990 and 2020, but the military allowed her to form a government only once, in 2016.

She spent a total of 15 years under house arrest between 1989 and 2010. She later damaged her reputation as an international icon of democracy by not speaking out against the military’s brutal ethnic cleansing of Rohingya Muslims, which drove more than 700,000 Rohingya into Bangladesh.

Since the coup, Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi and the ousted president, U Win Myint, have been held under house arrest in undisclosed locations near the capital, Naypyidaw. Mr. Win Myint was also convicted on Dec. 5 of violating Covid-19 protocols and sentenced to four years. The coup leader also cut his sentence in half.

Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi’s trials are being held in a house in Naypyidaw that was converted into a courtroom. No members of the public are allowed to attend, and her lawyers are forbidden from speaking about the case.

On Dec. 30, a police court sentenced Daw Cherry Htet, 30, a police lieutenant and former bodyguard to Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi, to three years in prison for violating rules on police conduct by posting messages on Facebook that the court deemed inflammatory.

In one post, she said simply, “We miss you Amay,” using the Burmese word for mother. The former bodyguard was also accused of communicating with the National Unity Government, the shadow government formed after the coup by ousted elected officials and other opponents of the military.

Monday’s conviction of Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi came as the military continued its effort to suppress pro-democracy protests, combat a budding resistance movement and battle ethnic groups seeking autonomy. Soldiers and the police have killed at least 1,447 civilians since the coup and detained nearly 8,500, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, a rights group.

The Tatmadaw, as the Myanmar military is known, was accused of committing one of its largest massacres on Christmas Eve when soldiers killed at least 35 fleeing villagers and burned their bodies. Save the Children, one of the groups that condemned the massacre, said two of its staff members were among those killed as they returned home for the Christmas holiday.

Sui-Lee Wee contributed reporting.

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Aung San Suu Kyi sentenced to four years in prison

Suu Kyi was found guilty of multiple charges that include possession of unlicensed walkie-talkies, a source with knowledge of the court proceedings told CNN.

Suu Kyi, 76, was Myanmar’s state counselor and de facto leader of the country before she was ousted and detained by the military in a coup 11 months ago and hit with almost a dozen charges that add up to combined maximum sentences of more than 100 years.

They include several charges of corruption — which each carry a maximum prison sentence of 15 years — violating Covid-19 pandemic restrictions during the 2020 election campaign, incitement, illegally importing and possessing walkie talkies, and breaking the colonial-era Official Secrets Act — which carries a maximum sentence of 14 years in prison.

She has rejected all allegations and her supporters say the charges against her are political.

Monday’s sentence includes two years imprisonment for violating Myanmar’s export-import law by possessing the walkie-talkies, and one year for violating the communications law. The two sentences will run concurrently, the source told CNN.

Suu Kyi was also sentenced to two years for violating the natural disaster management law, which regards breaking coronavirus rules.

On December 7, a Zabuthiri Court in the capital Naypyidaw initially sentenced Suu Kyi to four years in prison after being found guilty of incitement and two years after being found guilty of violating section 25 of Disaster Management Law, sources close to the trial said.

Later that day the military reduced the four year sentence to two years. The military also halved the four-year prison sentence of Myanmar’s deposed President Win Myint.

Myanmar’s military junta has sought to restrict information about the trials, which have been closed to the public. In October, a gag order was imposed on her legal team that prevented them from speaking with the media.

In a statement on Monday, Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director for Human Rights Watch, said, “The Myanmar junta’s courtroom circus of secret proceedings on bogus charges is all about steadily piling up more convictions against Aung San Suu Kyi so that she will remain in prison indefinitely.”

“Sr. Gen. Min Aung Hlaing and the junta leaders obviously still view her as a paramount political threat who needs to be permanently neutralized. Only that can explain the junta’s willingness to appear as global laughingstocks as they secure convictions in a kangaroo court on the flimsiest, politically motivated charges,” Robertson said.

Additional reporting from Reuters.

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Ousted Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi sentenced to 4 years in prison

Myanmar’s ousted democratically elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi was found guilty on Monday of charges including incitement and sentenced her to four years in prison, a source with direct knowledge of the case confirmed to NBC News.

The source added that they are concerned for Suu Kyi’s safely. When asked what’s next for the country’s democracy movement, they said that they are “hoping for the best, but prepared for the worst.”

The military ousted Suu Kyi, the leader of the country’s civilian government, in February. At the time, she had urged people to oppose the military takeover.

The U.K., which has previously called for the restoration of democracy in Myanmar, slammed the verdict.

“The sentencing of Aung San Suu Kyi is another appalling attempt by Myanmar’s military regime to stifle opposition and suppress freedom and democracy,” Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said in a statement released Monday.

“The United Kingdom calls on the regime to release political prisoners, engage in dialogue and allow a return to democracy. The arbitrary detention of elected politicians only risks further unrest.”

Suu Kyi, 76, was found guilty of inciting public unrest against the military and breaching Covid-19 rules in a closed hearing. Authorities in the country imposed a gag order on Suu Kyi’s lawyer Khin Maung Zaw in October, saying his communications could cause instability.

The incitement case involved statements posted on her party’s Facebook page after she and other party leaders had already been detained by the military, while the coronavirus charge involved a campaign appearance ahead of elections in November last year which her party overwhelmingly won.

These aren’t the only charges against Suu Kyi, who was taken into custody after the takeover. Verdicts in two cases related to her alleged ownership of walkie-talkies, allegedly found when soldiers raided her home early on Feb. 1, are due later this month. She has also been charged with a list of other offences including illegally importing and violating the Official Secrets Act.

The cases against her are widely seen as contrived to discredit her and keep her from running in the next election. The constitution bars anyone sent to prison after being convicted of a crime from holding high office or becoming a lawmaker.

The U.S., several European countries, along with Australia, New Zealand and South Korea have opposed the military takeover and called for a return to democracy.

Suu Kyi led a civilian government after her party won in a 2015 election called after the military stepped back from half a century of direct rule. That ended in February when the military detained Suu Kyi and other officials in the National League for Democracy party after a November 2020 election that saw the military lose seats.

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Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi sentenced to four years in jail | Aung San Suu Kyi News

A court in Myanmar has sentenced the country’s deposed leader Aung San Suu Kyi to four years in jail.

A spokesman for Myanmar’s military told the AFP news agency on Monday that Aung San Suu Kyi was found guilty of incitement and of violating COVID-19 rules.

Zaw Min Tun said she received two years in prison on each of the two charges.

Former President Win Myint was also jailed for four years under the same charges, he said, adding that the pair will not be taken to prison yet.

“They will face other charges from the places where they are staying now” in the capital Naypyidaw, he said, without giving further details.

The ruling on Monday is the first in a dozen cases the military has brought against the 76-year-old since it deposed her civilian government in a coup on February 1. The trial in Naypyidaw has been closed to the media, while the military has barred Aung San Suu Kyi’s lawyers from communicating with the media and the public.

 

Other cases against the Nobel Peace Prize laureate include multiple charges of corruption, violations of a state secrets act, and a telecoms law that altogether carry a maximum sentence of more than 100 years in prison.

Her supporters say the cases are baseless and designed to end her political career and tie her up in legal proceedings while the military consolidates power.

Aung San Suu Kyi denies all the charges.

‘Potent force’

The daughter of the hero of Myanmar’s independence from British colonial rule, Aung San Suu Kyi spent years under house arrest under a previous military government.

She was freed in 2010 and led her National League for Democracy (NLD) to a landslide victory in a 2015 election.

Her party won again in November last year but the military said the vote was rigged and seized power weeks later. The election commission at the time dismissed the military’s complaint of vote fraud.

Historian and author Thant Myint-U said the military leaders thought their predecessors who launched reforms more than 20 years ago had gone too far in allowing Aung San Suu Kyi back into politics and the entire reason for the coup was to exclude her.

“She remains far and away most popular in Myanmar politics and may still be a potent force in what’s to come,” he told the Reuters news agency.

Western states have demanded Aung San Suu Kyi’s release and condemned the violence since the coup.

On Monday, the United Kingdom said the former leader’s sentencing was “another appalling attempt by Myanmar’s military regime to stifle opposition and suppress freedom and democracy” and called on the “regime to release political prisoners, engage in dialogue and allow a return to democracy”.

Matthew Smith, the chief executive of the Fortify Rights group, said the sentencing was “part of a widespread and systematic attack on the civilian population” and called for the immediate release of Aung San Suu Kyi and other political prisoners.

The group ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR) also condemned Monday’s sentence as a “travesty of justice”.

“Since the day of the coup, it’s been clear that the charges against Aung San Suu Kyi, and the dozens of other detained MPs, have been nothing more than an excuse by the junta to justify their illegal power grab,” said Charles Santiago, a Malaysian legislator who heads the APHR.

The regional Association for Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), which has spearheaded diplomatic efforts to resolve the crisis in Myanmar, must “hold the line against this illegal takeover”, he said, adding that Monday’s ruling demonstrates “the junta’s continuing contempt for ASEAN” and its peace plan, which was agreed with Myanmar’s military in April and which includes initiating dialogue between the opposing sides in the country.

‘Farcical and corrupt’

Since the coup, Myanmar has been in turmoil, paralysed by protests and instability that escalated after the military’s deadly crackdown on its opponents. Security forces have killed at least 1,303 people in the clampdown, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP), a human rights group that records killings by the country’s security forces.

At least 354 opponents of the coup have also been sentenced to jail or to death, according to AAPP, including Aung San Suu Kyi’s aide, Win Htein, who was sentenced to 20 years in jail in October.

Amnesty International’s Ming Yu Hah said the sentencing of Aung San Suu Kyi on Monday on “bogus charges are the latest example of the military’s determination to eliminate all opposition and suffocate freedoms in Myanmar”.

“The court’s farcical and corrupt decision is part of a devastating pattern of arbitrary punishment that has seen more than 1,300 people killed and thousands arrested since the military coup in February,” she said, calling for swift, decisive and unified action from the international community.

“The international community must step up to protect civilians and hold perpetrators of grave violations to account, and ensure humanitarian and health assistance is granted as a matter of utmost urgency,” she said.

 



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Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi sentenced to four years in prison

Suu Kyi, 76, was Myanmar’s state counselor and de facto leader of the country before she was ousted and detained by the military 10 months ago and hit with almost a dozen charges that add up to combined maximum sentences of more than 100 years.

They include several charges of corruption — which each carry a maximum prison sentence of 15 years — violating Covid-19 pandemic restrictions during the 2020 election campaign, incitement, illegally importing and possessing walkie talkies, and breaking the colonial-era Official Secrets Act — which carries a maximum sentence of 14 years in prison.

She has rejected all allegations and her supporters say the charges against her are political.

The Zabuthiri Court in the capital Naypyidaw on Monday sentenced Suu Kyi to two years in prison after being found guilty of incitement and two years after being found guilty of violating section 25 of Disaster Management Law, sources close to the trial told CNN.

Myanmar’s deposed President Win Myint was also sentenced to four years in prison.

It is not clear where they will carry out their sentences.

Myanmar’s military junta has sought to restrict information about the trials. In October, a gag order was imposed on her legal team that prevented them from speaking with the media.

The verdict comes a day after security forces cracked down on a protest in the country’s biggest city Yangon on Sunday, prompting condemnations from the United Nations and the United States.

At least five people were killed when a vehicle plowed into anti-junta protesters, news outlet Myanmar Now reported Sunday, citing protesters and eyewitnesses. One reporter who witnessed the incident told CNN that it was a military vehicle that rammed demonstrators.

Eleven protesters were also arrested at the scene of the incident, including two men and one woman who were injured, according to a statement by Myanmar’s military. However, the statement did not acknowledge the reported deaths or the alleged vehicle attack.

The United Nations in Myanmar condemned the incident slamming the “reported attack on a number of unarmed civilians in Kyimyindaing Township, Yangon, in which a vehicle belonging to security forces rammed into protesters who were then fired upon with live ammunition leading to deaths and injuries to numerous people.”

The US Embassy said it was “horrified by reports that security forces opened fire against, ran over, and killed several peaceful protesters.”

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Judge Delays Aung San Suu Kyi Trial in Myanmar

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Credit…Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

A judge in Myanmar on Tuesday delayed the announcement of a highly anticipated verdict against the country’s ousted civilian leader, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, who is facing a series of rulings that could keep her locked up for the rest of her life.

The 76-year-old, who was detained in a military coup in February, is facing 11 charges and a maximum imprisonment of 102 years. Her trials have been held in closed-door hearings in Naypyidaw, the capital of Myanmar. The junta has barred all five of her lawyers from speaking to the media, saying their communications could “destabilize the country.”

The court was expected to deliver the first verdict on inciting public unrest on Tuesday but the judge adjourned the case until next month, according to a source familiar with the proceedings. It was unclear why the judge announced the delay.

Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi is a flawed hero for a troubled nation.

She is held up as an almost godlike figure among her supporters in Myanmar, who describe her as a defender of the country’s democracy, for which she won a Nobel Peace Prize. But her reputation on the international stage was tarnished over her complicity in the military’s mass atrocities against the Rohingya.

The ruling on Tuesday on the charge of inciting public unrest was expected to come a year after Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi led her party to a landslide election victory, trouncing the military-backed opposition party.

A guilty verdict would likely galvanize a protest movement that has spurred thousands of people to take up arms against the army since February when the generals seized power. The United Nations and foreign governments have described the trials as politically motivated.

In the months since the coup, people have gathered in the streets, doctors and nurses have stopped work in protest, and many have refused to pay taxes in a campaign known as the Civil Disobedience Movement.

Despite the threat of arrest, there is still widespread support for the movement. A growing number of soldiers are defecting, teaming up with armed protesters and insurgent groups to launch hit-and-run attacks against the military. The junta has responded by cracking down — it has killed 1,297 people and arrested more than 10,500 others, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma), a human rights organization based in Thailand.

The National Unity Government, a group of deposed civilian leaders, said last week that it raised $6.3 million from people who bought “bonds” to fund its revolution. For many of her supporters, Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi was seen as the only politician who could lead Myanmar toward full democracy. The country had been ruled by the military for half a century since 1962. After Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi was elected in 2015, she was forced to share power with the army, which appointed 25 percent of Parliament.

She has not been seen in public or been able to speak to anyone beside from her lawyers since she was detained on Feb. 1. Just hours before she and her colleagues from the National League of Democracy Party were to take their seats in parliament, military officers detained them, accusing them of voter fraud. Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi has denied the charge.

Rights activists have condemned the charge of incitement, saying it is used to intimidate critics of the military. It carries a maximum sentence of three years and states that anyone who “publishes or circulates any statement, rumor or report” with “intent to cause, or which is likely to cause, fear or alarm to the public” could be found liable.

Prosecutors have continued to slap more charges on Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi as her case proceeded. The verdict on Tuesday is the first of several that are expected to be announced in the coming months.

Credit…Soe Zeya Tun/Reuters

Daw Aung San Suu Kyi has long been a source of frustration among Myanmar’s military, so much so that it kept her under house arrest for nearly 15 years until 2010.

Analysts say the Tatmadaw, as the Myanmar military is known, has resented her overwhelming popularity among the people. In 2015, when the country held national elections, her party, the National League of Democracy, won in a landslide victory.

A year later, the N.L.D. introduced a bill in Parliament to create a new post for Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi as state counselor. This move was seen as a direct challenge to the Tatmadaw because it circumvented the country’s Constitution, which was written by the generals and barred candidates for Myanmar’s presidency from having close family members who “owe allegiance to a foreign power.” (Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi was married to a British man, who is now deceased, and has two sons, who live abroad.)

As state counselor, Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi declared herself above the president and named herself foreign minister, a move that the military saw as a power grab.

Political experts say Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi has always had a frosty relationship with the Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, who orchestrated the February coup that removed her from power. For years, the two leaders sent messages through an intermediary, “like embittered divorcés,” according to David Mathieson, a veteran analyst on Myanmar.

But during her time in power, Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi was criticized for being too deferential to the generals — she characterized her relationship with the military as “not that bad” and said the generals in her cabinet were “quite sweet.” In 2019, she infamously defended the army’s 2017 crackdown on the Muslim Rohingya minority at The Hague, angering the international community.

Credit…Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Daw Aung San Suu Kyi is being tried on a slew of charges, including corruption and violating the Official Secrets Act, in addition to the one count of inciting public unrest.

She faces a maximum possible sentence of 102 years in prison if found guilty on all 11 counts she has been charged with so far. Her supporters say the charges are manufactured to remove her permanently from politics.

The five lawyers representing her have been placed under a highly unusual gag order prohibiting them from talking publicly about her case.

Five of the charges accuse her of engaging in corruption, including by accepting bribes in cash and gold. She has called those charges “absurd.”

She is being tried separately on a single charge of violating the colonial-era Official Secrets Act, which prohibits sharing state information that could be useful to an enemy. Her co-defendants in that case are former finance officials and her Australian economic policy adviser, Sean Turnell, suggesting that the charges involve government expenditures.

Myanmar’s election commission, which has been taken over by the regime, announced this month that it would be bring charges of electoral fraud against her and 15 other leaders of the National League for Democracy, her party. This case will be handled separately from her criminal trials and could result in the party being banned from participating in future elections.

The court is also expected to deliver a verdict soon on two counts of violating Covid-19 protocols. Those charges stem from an episode during the 2020 election campaign in which she stood outside, in a face mask and face shield, with her dog, Taichito, at her side, and waved to supporters passing by in vehicles. A video of the scene shows masked aides and security staff standing nearby, but socially distanced.

Closing arguments on two counts of illegally possessing and importing walkie-talkies are scheduled for next month. Her defense says the devices belonged to her security team, not her.

Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi is being kept under house arrest in the capital, Naypyidaw, and tried in a special courtroom that was constructed in the living room of another house.

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Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi testifies in court but a gag order prevents her defense from being made public

Her courtroom testimony in the capital Naypyidaw, however, was not publicly available due to a gag order imposed on her legal team by the military junta.

The 76-year-old Nobel laureate was testifying at her trial on one of several charges brought against her. She had pleaded not guilty to the charge of incitement last month, alongside ousted President Win Myint, whose testimony on October 12 challenged the military’s insistence that no coup took place.

That charge stems from letters bearing their names that were sent to embassies urging them not to recognize the junta.

Suu Kyi, who was Myanmar’s state counselor and de facto leader of the country, has been hit with a raft of criminal charges that could see her put behind bars for decades if found guilty.

They include several charges of corruption — which carry a maximum prison sentence of 15 years — violating Covid-19 pandemic restrictions during the 2020 election campaign, illegally importing and possessing walkie talkies, and breaking the colonial-era Official Secrets Act — which carries a maximum sentence of 14 years in prison.

Myanmar’s state media — the mouthpiece of the junta — has not reported on Tuesday’s court proceedings and the hearings are closed to reporters and the public. The gag order imposed on Suu Kyi’s legal team means there is now little avenue for the world to know how her trial is progressing, or about her health.

In September, Suu Kyi appeared “dizzy” as she heard charges and was deemed too ill to attend court. Her lawyer in early October asked the court that hearings for each case be held every two weeks rather than every week, over concerns the busy schedule was having on her health, according to Reuters.

A military spokesperson did not answer CNN’s calls for comment.

Local media Myanmar Now reported that Suu Kyi “was able to defend her innocence very well.” CNN cannot independently verify the report.
Suu Kyi and her ruling National League for Democracy party was overthrown when the military seized power in a February 1 coup, ostensibly over alleged election irregularities. She has been held in detention at an undisclosed location in the capital since then. Her lawyers and supporters consider the charges against her to be politically motivated.
During his testimony last week, Win Myint, who was Myanmar’s head of state, told the court that senior military officials approached him on February 1 and told him to resign due to ill health.

Win Myint said he declined the proposal, saying he was in good health, according to his lawyer. Officers then threatened his decision would “cause harm” but Win Myint said he would rather die than consent, the lawyer told CNN.

The gag order on Suu Kyi and Win Myint’s lawyers was imposed following this hearing.

ASEAN snub over continued violence

Tuesday also marked the first day of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) leaders summit in Brunei. The summit began without a representative from Myanmar after the bloc excluded Gen. Min Aung Hlaing from attending over a failure to end the violence, allow humanitarian aid into the country and give access to an ASEAN envoy.

Myanmar has been wracked by violence, unrest and humanitarian crises since the military, led by Min Aung Hlaing, seized power more than eight months ago.

In August, Min Aung Hlaing declared himself Prime Minister of a newly formed caretaker government and said elections would be held by 2023.
But there remains widespread public opposition to the junta. The months since the coup have been marked with widespread bloodshed and violence as the junta cracked down on nationwide pro-democracy protests, a prolonged civil disobedience movement and increasing conflict with “people’s defense forces” who are taking up arms against junta forces.

Almost 1,200 people have been killed by security forces since the coup, and nearly 9,200 have been arrested — including journalists, activists, protesters and anyone deemed in opposition of the military — with credible reports of torture, according to human rights and advocacy group the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners.

Last week, the military announced it was releasing 5,600 prisoners detained during the protests the coup. But dozens of political prisoners were re-arrested moments after being released, according to human rights groups and eyewitnesses.

The junta has also disputed the number of people killed since the coup and blames the violence on the National Unity Government (NUG) — which operates mainly from abroad or undercover and considers itself the legitimate government in Myanmar — and various ethnic armed organizations, which it labeled “terrorist groups.”

Cape Diamond contributed reporting.

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