Kangaroo Justice

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A court in Myanmar found Aung San Suu Kyi guilty of corruption Wednesday, the latest verdict against the former civilian leader, who was detained under a series of charges following last year’s military coup, BBC reported.

The court sentenced the Nobel Peace Prize laureate to five years in prison for taking a $600,000 bribe in the form of cash and gold bars from the former head of Yangon, Myanmar’s largest city and region.

She has already been convicted of inciting dissent against the military and breaking Covid-19 health rules. Earlier this year, she was found guilty of having contraband walkie-talkie radios and breaching more Covid-19 rules.

The latest verdict brings her total prison sentence to 11 years but she still faces a myriad of other accusations including voter fraud. If convicted on all her charges, she would face a total jail sentence of more than 190 years, by some estimates.

Suu Kyi has denied the allegations. Her supporters and human rights groups, meanwhile, have denounced the proceedings as a farce and an attempt to jail her for life.

The country’s military junta, however, maintains that the trials have been fair.

In February 2021, the army overthrew Suu Kyi’s democratically-elected government, which resulted in mass pro-democracy protests against the junta. The military responded by launching a bloody crackdown against demonstrators, which has killed nearly 1,800 people and arrested more than 10,000.