A source familiar with the matter has revealed that Myanmar’s Supreme Court will hear an appeal by deposed leader Aung San Suu Kyi against her convictions for corruption and violating election and state secrets laws.
Suu Kyi, who is currently serving 33 years in prison, has repeatedly called the charges against her absurd and part of an orchestrated attempt to destroy her political career. The former ruling National League for Democracy party won a landslide election victory in November 2020, but Suu Kyi was arrested three months later during a coup.
The appeal comes as the military intensifies operations against ethnic minority armies and pro-democracy resistance movements. The source, who declined to be identified due to the sensitivity of matter, said no date had been set by the Supreme Court to hear the appeal of Suu Kyi and co-defendant Win Myint, the ousted former president.
The popular, Oxford-educated Suu Kyi has spent much of her political life detained under military governments and is currently being held in an annex of a prison in the capital Naypyitaw. Between 2015 and 2020, Suu Kyi was at the helm of Myanmar’s government during a period of tentative democracy and uneasy power-sharing with the military, which had ruled the country for 49 years before relinquishing control in 2011. The military junta plans to conduct an election, but the timing remains undisclosed. In the meantime, the army dissolved the NLD and several other political parties last month because they did not register. The military’s surrogate party is expected to dominate the election.
Source: Reuters
