PONTIANAKGLOBE.COM, BANGKOK - On August 15, 2022, Myanmar’s imprisoned civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi was found guilty on four counts of corruption after an unfair trial and sentenced to 6 years in prison.
Suu Kyi, 77, was previously sentenced to 11 years in prison, and faces an additional 122 years combined on various fabricated charges.
The special court in Naypyidaw, the capital, has been closed to all journalists and observers, and the military junta has barred her legal team from speaking on the case.
Myanmar’s military arrested Suu Kyi along with other senior officials in Naypyidaw on February 1, 2021, installing a junta under a manufactured “state of emergency,” and since then carrying out widespread and systematic abuses that amount to crimes against humanity.
The following quote can be attributed to Elaine Pearson, acting Asia director at Human Rights Watch:
“The Myanmar military junta’s unjust conviction and sentencing of Aung San Suu Kyi is part of its methodical assault on human rights around the country. The junta’s fabricated trials, torture of detainees, and execution of activists highlights its broader disregard for the lives of Myanmar’s people. In the face of this oppression, millions have risked all defending freedom and justice.
The military’s willingness to forcibly disappear the country’s high-profile civilian leader reveals the brutality that lesser-known political prisoners face. The security forces have arbitrarily arrested over 15,000 activists, journalists, and others since the coup, many of whom have been beaten, burned with cigarettes, and otherwise tortured.
The United Nations, Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), European Union, United States, and other concerned governments should press for the release of Suu Kyi and all those wrongfully imprisoned. This verdict should push them to undertake urgent action against the junta to ensure there’s justice for its victims and a reckoning for its crimes.”