Deposed Myanmar’s leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, has been sentenced to five years after she was found guilty of corruption.
Aung San Suu Kyi, who is a Nobel laureate, led Myanmar for five years before being forced from office when the military seized power in a coup in February 2021.
She has been charged with at least 18 offences, which carry a combined maximum jail term approaching 190 years if she is found guilty and she has already been sentenced to six years of imprisonment in other cases.
Aung San Suu Kyi’s government committed genocide against the country’s Rohingya Muslims in 2019.
According to Aljazeera, a court in the country announced the sentence in the country’s capital Naypyidaw on Wednesday.
Aung San Suu Kyi was found guilty in the first of the eleven corruption cases she is being charged with.
Reports said that the judge handed down the verdict within moments of the court convening.
The 76-year-old Aung San Suu Kyi was being accused of accepting 11.4 kg (402 oz) of gold and cash payments totalling $600,000 from her protege-turned-accuser, former Yangon chief minister Phyo Min Thein, an allegation she denied and called ‘absurd’.
But Nay Phone Latt, a former official in Aung San Suu Kyi’s ousted ruling party, said court decisions were temporary because the military rule would not last long.
“We do not recognise the terrorist junta’s rulings, legislation, or the judiciary,” said Nay Phone Latt, a member of the shadow National Unity Government, which has declared a people’s revolt against military rule.
“I don’t care how long they want to sentence, whether it’s one year, two years, or whatever they want. This won’t last,” he added.
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