Former Burmese leader Aung San Suu Kyi was sentenced to five years in prison on Wednesday April 27 in a corruption case, according to a source familiar with the matter who preferred to remain anonymous.

The verdict in this case, where she is accused of having received bribes, was postponed on Monday.

He was expected on Tuesday, according to this source, but he was finally returned on Wednesday.

Series of legal proceedings

The 76-year-old 1991 Nobel Peace Prize winner has been detained since the February 1, 2021 military coup that toppled her civilian government and ended a decade of democratic transition in Burma.

The former leader faces a total of ten corruption charges, each punishable by fifteen years in prison.

She is the target of a cascade of legal proceedings for charges ranging from the violation of a law on state secrets dating from the colonial era to electoral fraud, sedition, corruption... She risks in total more 150 years in prison if convicted on each of these counts.

Aung San Suu Kyi had been indicted for corruption in June 2021, accused in particular of having illegally collected 600,000 dollars and eleven kilos of gold from the former minister in charge of the Yangon region, Phyo Min Thein, had indicated in June last the official newspaper The Global New Light of Myanmar.

She has already been sentenced to six years in prison, including for breaching restrictions related to the Covid-19 pandemic and inciting public unrest.

Placed under house arrest

Arrested on the morning of the coup, she was placed under house arrest in a secret location where she is serving the beginning of her sentence and must remain for the duration of the trial.

The latter is held behind closed doors, his lawyers being prohibited from speaking to the press and international organizations.

Many observers denounce this procedure solely motivated, according to them, by political considerations: definitively excluding Aung San Suu Kyi, daughter of the hero of independence and big winner of the 2015 and 2020 elections, from the political arena.

Aung San Suu Kyi spent nearly fifteen years under house arrest under previous military dictatorships.

Several of his relatives have already been sentenced to heavy sentences: capital punishment for a former parliamentarian, 75 years in prison for a former minister, 20 years for one of his collaborators.

Others went into exile or went into hiding.

The coup plunged the country into chaos.

Nearly 1,800 civilians have been killed by security forces and more than 13,000 arrested, according to a local group.

Militias took up arms against the junta across Burma.

With AFP and Reuters

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