Suu Kyi sentenced to 3 more years in prison for Myanmar electoral fraud
Bangkok, Sep 2 (EFE).- Deposed Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi was sentenced Friday by the military junta to three years in prison and hard labor for electoral fraud, adding to a sentence of 20 years in prison for various charges of which she pleads not guilty.
A court inside a detention center in Naypyitaw found Suu Kyi and two other members of her party, the National League for Democracy, guilty of fraud in the November 2020 elections, three months before the military coup that overthrew her, according to news outlet Myanmar Now.
Suu Kyi, 77, under arrest since the coup, was sentenced along with deposed President Win Myint and former Union Government Office Minister Min thu, sentenced to the same sentence after a closed-door trial.
Military authorities accuse the deposed leaders of fraud for the alleged discovery of 2,000 repeated votes in the 2020 elections.
The alleged electoral fraud in these elections was the excuse of the military led by Gen. Min Aung Hlaing to take power, despite the fact that international observers endorsed the overwhelming majority victory of Suu Kyi’s party, as it did in 2015.
Min Aung Hlaing went so far as to say there were at least 10 million fraudulent votes, more than 25 percent of the electoral roll.
Suu Kyi was sentenced to four years in prison in December, reduced to two by a partial pardon from the military junta, for violating laws against the pandemic and incitement against authorities. In January she was sentenced to four years for flaunting Covid-19 emergency measures and the illegal importation of “walkie talkies.”
The ousted leader received a five-year prison sentence in April for accepting bribes worth $600,000 and 11.4 kilograms of gold from former Yangon Governor Phyo Min Thein, who testified against the elected leader in October.
On Aug. 15, she was sentenced to six more years in prison for abuse of power by allegedly renting land below market price and building a house with donations that were to be dedicated to charitable works of her foundation, according to the board.
The former state counselor also faces a trial for allegedly violating the law of official secrets, punishable by a maximum of 14 years in prison.
Suu Kyi’s lawyers, banned by the military junta from speaking to the media, have called all the accusations against her a fabrication.
The military coup has plunged Myanmar into a deep political, social and economic crisis and has opened a spiral of violence with new civilian militias that have exacerbated the guerrilla war that the country has been experiencing for decades.
At least 2,262 people have died as a result of violent repression by police and soldiers, who have shot to kill peaceful and unarmed protesters, according to data collected by the Myanmar NGO Association for the Assistance of Political Prisoners. EFE
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