TIMES.KY

Cayman Islands, Caribbeanand International News
Friday, Mar 29, 2024

Myanmar sentences ex-leader Suu Kyi to jail for corruption

Myanmar sentences ex-leader Suu Kyi to jail for corruption

A court in military-ruled Myanmar has found former leader Aung Sun Suu Kyi guilty of corruption, the latest verdict in a series of secret trials.
Suu Kyi has been under house arrest since February 2021 when a military coup ousted her elected government.

The 76-year-old Nobel laureate has been charged with a raft of criminal offenses including voter fraud.

She denies all of the accusations and rights groups have condemned the court trials as a sham.

The closed-door hearings in the capital Nay Pyi Taw have been shut to the public and media, and Suu Kyi's lawyers are forbidden from speaking to journalists.

On Wednesday a junta court found her guilty of taking a $600,000 (£477,000) bribe in the form of cash and gold bars from the former head of Yangon, Myanmar's largest city and region.

She was sentenced to five years in jail, which takes her total prison sentence to 11 years, as she was previously found guilty for other offenses.

In December, she was convicted of inciting dissent against the military and breaking public health Covid rules. In January she was also found guilty of having contraband walkie-talkie radios in her house and breaching more Covid rules.

Suu Kyi still faces 10 other corruption charges, each carrying a maximum penalty of 15 years, as well as charges on electoral fraud and violating the official secrets act.

Her supporters say the charges have been trumped up by the junta regime to ensure Suu Kyi, who remains highly regarded in Myanmar as a democracy icon, is jailed for life.

If convicted on all her charges, she would face a total jail sentence of more than 190 years, by some estimates.

Civil rights and democracy groups, as well as the UN, have denounced the legal proceedings as a farce. Human Rights Watch has called it a "courtroom circus of secret proceedings on bogus charges".

Myanmar's military regime has dismissed such allegations, saying Suu Kyi has received fair trials and due legal process so far.

The military's violent seizure of power last February in Myanmar, also known as Burma, came months after Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) won general elections by a landslide.

The military alleged voter fraud in the victory, however independent election observers said the elections were largely free and fair.

The coup triggered widespread demonstrations, prompting Myanmar's military to crack down on pro-democracy protesters, activists and journalists.

Suu Kyi - and many members of her party - are among more than 10,000 people who have been arrested by the junta since they seized power.

Nearly 1,800 people have been killed in the military's crackdown on dissent, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma).

The chaos has also led to continued fighting. The military junta faces widespread opposition and some parts of the country are now engulfed in armed conflict.
Newsletter

Related Articles

TIMES.KY
0:00
0:00
Close
Paper straws found to contain long-lasting and potentially toxic chemicals - study
FTX's Bankman-Fried headed for jail after judge revokes bail
Blackrock gets half a trillion dollar deal to rebuild Ukraine
Israel: Unprecedented Civil Disobedience Looms as IDF Reservists Protest Judiciary Reform
America's First New Nuclear Reactor in Nearly Seven Years Begins Operations
Southeast Asia moves closer to economic unity with new regional payments system
Today Hunter Biden’s best friend and business associate, Devon Archer, testified that Joe Biden met in Georgetown with Russian Moscow Mayor's Wife Yelena Baturina who later paid Hunter Biden $3.5 million in so called “consulting fees”
Singapore Carries Out First Execution of a Woman in Two Decades Amid Capital Punishment Debate
Google testing journalism AI. We are doing it already 2 years, and without Google biased propoganda and manipulated censorship
Unlike illegal imigrants coming by boats - US Citizens Will Need Visa To Travel To Europe in 2024
Musk announces Twitter name and logo change to X.com
The politician and the journalist lost control and started fighting on live broadcast.
The future of sports
Unveiling the Black Hole: The Mysterious Fate of EU's Aid to Ukraine
Farewell to a Music Titan: Tony Bennett, Renowned Jazz and Pop Vocalist, Passes Away at 96
Alarming Behavior Among Florida's Sharks Raises Concerns Over Possible Cocaine Exposure
Transgender Exclusion in Miss Italy Stirs Controversy Amidst Changing Global Beauty Pageant Landscape
Joe Biden admitted, in his own words, that he delivered what he promised in exchange for the $10 million bribe he received from the Ukraine Oil Company.
TikTok Takes On Spotify And Apple, Launches Own Music Service
Global Trend: Using Anti-Fake News Laws as Censorship Tools - A Deep Dive into Tunisia's Scenario
Arresting Putin During South African Visit Would Equate to War Declaration, Asserts President Ramaphosa
Hacktivist Collective Anonymous Launches 'Project Disclosure' to Unearth Information on UFOs and ETIs
Typo sends millions of US military emails to Russian ally Mali
Server Arrested For Theft After Refusing To Pay A Table's $100 Restaurant Bill When They Dined & Dashed
The Changing Face of Europe: How Mass Migration is Reshaping the Political Landscape
China Urges EU to Clarify Strategic Partnership Amid Trade Tensions
Europe is boiling: Extreme Weather Conditions Prevail Across the Continent
The Last Pour: Anchor Brewing, America's Pioneer Craft Brewer, Closes After 127 Years
Democracy not: EU's Digital Commissioner Considers Shutting Down Social Media Platforms Amid Social Unrest
Sarah Silverman and Renowned Authors Lodge Copyright Infringement Case Against OpenAI and Meta
Italian Court's Controversial Ruling on Sexual Harassment Ignites Uproar
Why Do Tech Executives Support Kennedy Jr.?
The New York Times Announces Closure of its Sports Section in Favor of The Athletic
BBC Anchor Huw Edwards Hospitalized Amid Child Sex Abuse Allegations, Family Confirms
Florida Attorney General requests Meta CEO's testimony on company's platforms' alleged facilitation of illicit activities
The Distorted Mirror of actual approval ratings: Examining the True Threat to Democracy Beyond the Persona of Putin
40,000 child slaves in Congo are forced to work in cobalt mines so we can drive electric cars.
BBC Personalities Rebuke Accusations Amidst Scandal Involving Teen Exploitation
A Swift Disappointment: Why Is Taylor Swift Bypassing Canada on Her Global Tour?
Historic Moment: Edgars Rinkevics, EU's First Openly Gay Head of State, Takes Office as Latvia's President
Bye bye democracy, human rights, freedom: French Cops Can Now Secretly Activate Phone Cameras, Microphones And GPS To Spy On Citizens
The Poor Man With Money, Mark Zuckerberg, Unveils Twitter Replica with Heavy-Handed Censorship: A New Low in Innovation?
Unilever Plummets in a $2.5 Billion Free Fall, to begin with: A Reckoning for Misuse of Corporate Power Against National Interest
Beyond the Blame Game: The Need for Nuanced Perspectives on America's Complex Reality
Twitter Targets Meta: A Tangle of Trade Secrets and Copycat Culture
The Double-Edged Sword of AI: AI is linked to layoffs in industry that created it
US Sanctions on China's Chip Industry Backfire, Prompting Self-Inflicted Blowback
Meta Copy Twitter with New App, Threads
The New French Revolution
BlackRock Bitcoin ETF Application Refiled, Naming Coinbase as ‘Surveillance-Sharing’ Partner
×