She faces prison for decades.

The former Burmese leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, accused in particular of "inciting public disturbance" by the junta in power since February 1 was to be determined on Tuesday November 30.

The first verdict was however postponed until December 6, a source familiar with the matter told AFP. 

The 76-year-old Nobel Peace Prize winner has been under house arrest since the February 1 coup that abruptly ended the democratic transition underway in the country since 2010.

The generals have since continued a bloody crackdown with nearly 1,300 civilians killed and more than 7,000 in detention, according to a local NGO, the Association for Assistance to Political Prisoners (AAPP), which reports cases of torture, rape and extra-judicial executions.

In this part of the case, Aung San Suu Kyi faces three years of detention. 

House arrest

Several analysts interviewed by AFP believe that the junta court could decide to commute a possible prison sentence to house arrest, a way to justify the sidelining of the former leader, cut off from the world for ten month.

His only links with the outside world are limited to his meetings with his team of lawyers.

Aung San Suu Kyi has been on trial since June for a multitude of offenses: illegal importation of walkie-talkies, non-compliance with restrictions linked to the Covid-19 pandemic, sedition, corruption, electoral fraud ...

Many observers denounce a political trial aimed at neutralizing the winner of the 2015 and 2020 elections.  

In good health according to her lawyers, she faces long years in prison if she is found guilty.

"It is almost certain that in the end Aung San Suu Kyi will be sentenced to a severe sentence," said analyst David Mathieson, an expert on Burma.

"The question is, what will her incarceration look like? (...) Will she be treated like an average prisoner in a crowded cell or with privileges in a VIP villa?"

The media are not allowed to attend his trial, behind closed doors, in a special court in the capital Naypyidaw.

The junta also banned its legal team from speaking to the press and international organizations.

During her first court appearance, Aung San Suu Kyi put on her resistance clothes, swearing that her party, the National League for Democracy (LND), would endure and asking her followers to stand united. 

Severe penalties for loved ones

In recent weeks, the junta courts have handed down very severe sentences against other prominent members of the NLD.

A former lawmaker was sentenced to 75 years in prison for corruption, a sentence including forced labor, and a close collaborator of 80-year-old Aung San Suu Kyi, to 20 years of detention.

The generals justified their putsch by ensuring that they discovered more than 11 million irregularities during the November 2020 elections, won overwhelmingly by the NLD.

International observers, for their part, at the time described the election as "generally free and fair".

Junta leader Min Aung Hlaing threatened to dissolve the formation and assured that new elections would be held by August 2023.

Since the putsch, many party members have been arrested, gone into hiding or fled the country.

Some have set up a shadow government of resistance, the government of national unity.

Dozens of citizen militias, called "People's Defense Forces", have formed across the country, in the midst of political and economic chaos.

Objective: to carry out guerrilla operations against the junta and its allies. 

With AFP

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