If convicted in all the charges, Aung San Suu Kyi may face a sentence of more than 190 years in prison
File photo of Aung San Suu Kyi, ousted Myanmar leader. Reuters
Once the recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, ousted civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi was on Wednesday found guilty of corruption and sentenced to five years in prison.
In the latest round of a legal onslaught against the 76-year-old Nobel laureate, Suu Kyi was accused of accepting a bribe of $600,000 cash and gold bars.
A Myanmar junta court in the military-ruled Myanmar delivered the latest verdict in a series of secret trials.
The 76-year-old Nobel laureate has been under house arrest since February 2021 when a military coup ousted her elected government.
Let’s take a look at Aung San Suu Kyi’s rise to power and fall from grace:
Political upbringing
Suu Kyi is the daughter of Myanmar’s independence hero, General Aung San, who was assassinated when she was only two years old.
She spent some time in India with her mother, Daw Khin Kyi, who was appointed Myanmar’s ambassador in Delhi in 1960.
She studied philosophy, politics and economics from Oxford University in the UK, where she also met her future husband, academic Michael Aris.
According to the BBC, after working and living in Japan and Bhutan, Suu Kyi settled in the UK to raise their two children.
Entry into revolutionary politics
She came back to Yangon in 1988 to look after her ill mother at a time when the country was going through a major political upheaval.
She went on to lead the revolt against the then-dictator, General Ne Win.
She led thousands of college students, office workers and monks into rallies and travelled around the country, calling for peaceful democratic reform and free elections.
The demonstration, however, was short lived as the army seized power in a coup on 18 September 1988 and Suu Kyi was placed under house arrest the next year.
She remained under house arrest for six years until July 1995. In September 2000, she was again put under house arrest when she tried to defy her travel restrictions and tried to travel to Mandalay.
She was released unconditionally in May 2002, but just a year later she was arrested after being attacked by a government-backed mob.
She was returned to house arrest after three months of detention. Her house arrest term was continued to be extended till 13 November 2010.
Mainstream politics
Suu Kyi was still under house arrest when Myanmar held its first elections in two decades on 7 November 2010. She was released from house arrest six days later and joined her party in the political process.
In April 2012 by-elections, her party won 43 out of the 45 seats. Suu Kyi was sworn in as an MP and leader of the opposition.
They won 43 of the 45 seats contested in April 2012 by-elections, in an emphatic statement of support. Ms Suu Kyi was sworn in as an MP and leader of the opposition.
On 16 June 2012, Suu Kyi delivered her Nobel acceptance speech at Oslo’s city hall, two decades after being awarded the peace prize.
Even though her party, National League for Democracy (NLD), recorded a sweeping victory in the 2015 general election, she could become the president. Myanmar’s Constitution bars her from the presidency because she is the widow and mother of foreigners–provisions that appeared to be written specifically to prevent her from being eligible for presidency.
President Htin Kyaw appointed her State Counsellor, a position that is similar to a Prime Minister.
The Rohingya crisis
In 2017, hundreds of thousands of Rohingya fled to Bangladesh after an army crackdown. The treatment of the country’s mostly Muslim Rohingya community raised questions about Suu Kyi’s leadership.
Myanmar now faces a lawsuit accusing it of genocide at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), while the International Criminal Court is investigating the country for crimes against humanity.
Her former international supporters accused her of doing nothing to stop rape, murder, and possible genocide by refusing to condemn the still powerful military or acknowledge accounts of atrocities.
It raised more questions about her ethical credibility when she defended the army’s actions at the ICJ hearing in the Hague.
The coup and arrest
Despite her tarnished reputation, Suu Kyi returned to power in 2020 general elections. However, the powerful military disputed the results and claimed the elections were illegitimate.
On 1 February, 2021, when the parliament was to sit for the first time, the military arrested Suu Kyi and president Win Myint among other political leaders.
Charges against Suu Kyi
The 76-year-old Nobel laureate has been charged with a number of criminal offences including voter fraud.
According to the BBC, In December 2021, Suu Kyi was found guilty of inciting dissent and breaking Covid rules in the first of a series of verdicts that could see her jailed for life.
The latest conviction takes her total prison sentence to 11 years, as she was previously found guilty for other offences.
In January she was also found guilty of having contraband walkie-talkie radios in her house and breaching more Covid rules.
Suu Kyi still awaits verdict in 10 other corruption charges, each carrying a maximum penalty of 15 years. If convicted on all her charges, she would face a total jail sentence of more than 190 years, by some estimates, the BBC reported.
With inputs from agencies
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