Aung San Suu Kyi sentenced to four years in prison:

Updated less than 1 hour ago

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Suu Kyi is charged with sedition and corruption.

– She will receive two years in prison for each of the two charges, said the military junta’s spokesman, Zaw Min Tun according to Al Jazeera.

Aung San Suu Kyi won the last parliamentary election by a large margin before the military leadership in the country committed a coup ten months ago. She was then the Prime Minister of Myanmar. The country’s former president, Win Myint, was also sentenced to four years in prison. Both were charged with a number of counts of corruption.

Both have been found guilty of violating corona rules and of inciting opposition to the military.

– But they must also prepare for more verdicts, according to the junta’s spokesman Zaw Min Tun, quoted on the BBC.

Until further notice, they will not be placed in any ordinary prison.

Former Prime Minister and a friend of Aung San Suu Kyi, Kjell Magne Bondevik, tells VG that the trial against Suu Kyi is a farce.

– It is a tool to bring Aung San Suu Kyi to silence. It shows the true face of the military junta. The verdict against Suu should provoke protests from both the Norwegian government and the international community, Bondevik says to VG.

Kjell Magne Bondevik is seriously concerned about Aung San Suu Kyi’s health condition.

– She has struggled with health problems for a long time and with what is happening now, there is reason to fear that these may get worse. That is why it is crucial that the international community takes action, says the former Norwegian Prime Minister, who on several occasions has visited Aung San Suu Kyi in Myanmar, the last time two years ago.

– I do not think the West has fully understood the balancing act that Aung San Suu Kyi has had to go through by constantly being forced to deal with the military leadership in Myanmar. She is hoping the people of Myanmar are clinging to. Let us sincerely pray and believe that this hope will not be extinguished, says Kjell Magne Bondevik.

Ahead of the sentencing, some 30 peaceful protesters gathered in Yangoon, Myanmar’s largest city, on Sunday to show their support for Aung San Suu Kyi. According to international news agencies, the demonstration was mercilessly crushed by the military junta’s security forces.

First they drove a car into the crowd, then they hit with batons and shot at protesters, eyewitnesses told AP, Reuters and local media.

Five people lost their lives in the incident, reports Reuters. In addition, 11 people according to the BBC arrested – among them two Burmese journalists.

– I was hit, and fell in front of a truck. A soldier hit me with a rifle, but I pushed him back. Then he shot at me as I ran in a zigzag to escape, says one of the protesters to Reuters.

– She’s not feeling well

Suu Kyi is charged with eleven counts of various acts of corrosion and sedition, she has distanced herself from them all. The 1991 Nobel Prize winner has been under house arrest since February 1, the day the country’s military seized power in a coup and arrested the leader of the people and her government.

– She’s not feeling well. It is obvious that the military junta wants her to die in prison, says a spokesman for the newly established in the government in exile, National Unity Government. The spokesman has previously told the BBC that Aung San Suu Kyi has health problems and that she is feeling heavy while under house arrest.

The spokesman is mentioned as Dr. Sasa in the BBC article.

Aung San Suu Kyi’s party won parliamentary elections in a landslide in November 2010. The country’s military leadership claimed that the election was not conducted legally, in a discussion that continued until the military took power in a coup on February 1, 2021.

Millions are starving

After the military in Myanmar on February 1 took power in the coup has prices in the country skyrocketed, and thousands have lost their jobs sine.

As a result, more and more people are struggling to get food on the table. Those who are lucky and have money in the bank, have had to stand in line for hours to get them out, AFP reported this summer.

The World Food Program estimates that 3.4 million people will go hungry in Myanmar until the New Year.

UN human rights activist Michelle Bachelet stated in June that Myanmar is in a humanitarian crisis and that the military coup plotters are solely responsible for it.

Government in exile has called for “armed resistance”

While the opposition in Yangon on Sunday expressed itself through peaceful demonstrations, rebel forces elsewhere in the country have picked up weapons in the fight against the military junta.

This has ultimately led to situations such as the small town of Thantlang in northern Myanmar. Large parts of the city have been laid in ruins, and most of the population has fled. At least 256 houses, corresponding to over ten percent of the city’s building stock, is said to have burned down.

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