Aung San Suu Kyi jailed for another seven years after Myanmar court finds her guilty on five counts of corruption

The ousted leader of Myanmar, Aung San Suu Kyi, has been sentenced to a further seven years in prison for alleged corruption.

In a court session held behind closed doors in the capital Naypyitaw, Ms Suu Kyi was found guilty on five counts of corruption, a source familiar with her trial said.

It was the latest in a string of cases brought against the 77-year-old since her elected government was toppled by the southeast Asian country’s army early last year.

She now faces a total of 33 years behind bars.

On Friday, she was found guilty of offences relating to her lease and use of a helicopter while she was Myanmar‘s de facto leader, the source said.

Suu Kyi was alleged to have abused her position and caused a loss of state funds by not following financial regulations in giving permission to Win Myat Aye – a cabinet member in her former government – to hire, buy and maintain the aircraft.

A legal official said Ms Suu Kyi received sentences of three years for each of four charges, to be served concurrently, and four years for the charge related to the helicopter purchase, for a total of seven years. Win Myat Aye received the same sentences.

The Nobel Peace Prize winner was previously ordered to serve a total of 26 years in prison after being found guilty of a wide range of offences – all of which she has denied and described as absurd.

Those offences included breaking COVID-19 restrictions while campaigning, illegally owning radio equipment, incitement, breaching a state secrets law and trying to influence the country’s election commission.

The military junta has insisted the charges are legitimate and that Ms Suu Kyi, who has been held in the annex of a jail in Naypyitaw, has been given due process by an independent court.

But her supporters and independent analysts say the charges against her are an attempt to legitimise the army’s seizure of power while eliminating her from politics before an election next year.

Phil Robertson, deputy director of Human Rights Watch’s Asia division, said: “The convictions aim to both permanently sideline her, as well as undermine and ultimately negate her NLD party’s landslide victory in the November 2020 election.

“From start to finish, the junta grabbed whatever it could to manufacture cases against her with full confidence that the country’s kangaroo courts would come back with whatever punitive judgements the military wanted.

“Due process and a free and fair trial were never remotely possible under the circumstances of this political persecution against her.”

Ms Suu Kyi led Myanmar for five years from 2015 after the military ended its 49-year rule in 2011, only for it to take back control early last year to stop her elected government from starting a second term.