Aung San Suu Kyi sentenced to jail for five years

Naypyidaw, Apr 28: Aung San Suu Kyi, the ousted civilian leader of Myanmar and Nobel laureate, was on Wednesday found guilty of corruption and sentenced to five years in jail, news agency AFP reported, citing sources.

 

 

 

A Myanmar junta court accused the 76-year-old leader of accepting a bribe of $600,000 cash and gold bars.

 

 

 

The case was the first of 11 corruption charges against Suu Kyi, each carrying a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison. Sources quoted by agencies declined to be identified because her trials were being held behind closed doors.

Journalists remained barred from attending the court hearings, while Suu Kyi's lawyers were banned from speaking to the media.

 

Also Read: Does Putin have Parkinson's disease? 

 

Since a military coup deposed her government in February last year, plunging the country into a major civil unrest, Suu Kyi had been facing a barrage of criminal cases that could see her jailed for decades. The 76-year-old was already sentenced to six years in jail for incitement against the military, breaching Covid-19 rules and breaking a telecommunications law -- although she will remain under house arrest while she fights other charges. More than 1,700 people have been killed and over 13,000 arrested in a crackdown on dissent since the coup, according to a local monitoring group.