Aung San Suu Kyi Jail Sentence Increased to 26 Years
Aung San Suu Kyi Speaks to the European Parliament in 2013 (Flickr)
A Burmese court sentenced Aung San Suu Kyi, deposed leader of Myanmar, to three additional years of prison, on October 12, 2022. Suu Kyi was found guilty on two counts of corruption and sentenced to three years for each charge, to be served concurrently. These are in addition to 12 other charges laid against her under Myanmar’s Anti-Corruption Law, adding up to 26 years total of jail time. She has denied all charges levied against her.
The corruption charges allege that between 2018 and 2020 Suu Kyi accepted $550,000 in bribes from Maung Weik, a Burmese businessman. These bribes were allegedly given to protect Weik’s businesses and were disguised as donations to Suu Kyi’s charity, the Daw Khin Kyi foundation.
Suu Kyi has been detained since February 1, 2021, when a military coup ousted the democratically-elected government of Myanmar. The military cited irregularities in the 2020 election, which saw Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) party win a landslide victory over the Union and Solidarity Party, the proxy party of the military, as justification for the coup. Military leaders refused to let the politicians take their seats in government and arrested top leaders of the NLD and other major parties. Independent outside observers, however, observed no irregularities in the 2020 election. In response to the military takeover, civilians launched nationwide peaceful protests, which were suppressed by deadly military force.
The 2021 coup and military response drew international condemnation from the United Nations and individual nations, but the military has maintained control of Myanmar. Since the coup, over 15,000 people have been detained, including at least 40 Burmese journalists, and over 2,300 people have been killed.
The 77-year old Suu Kyi, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 for leading the nonviolent movement against Myanmar’s military regime, remains popular in Myanmar. In 1989, she was placed under house arrest and offered her freedom if she left the country. She chose to remain under house arrest for 21 years, with a few exceptions, until her release in 2010. In 2015, the National League for Democracy, which Suu Kyi co-founded in 1988, won the national elections, bringing civilian government to Myanmar for the first time since 1962.
Analysts speculate that Suu Kyi’s arrest was politically motivated to prevent her from running for political office or challenging the military regime. The military government has promised it would hold elections in 2023, but Suu Kyi and other prominent members of her party will not be able to run as they are currently facing imprisonment.