A Myanmar junta court sentenced ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi to three years in jail “with hard labour” on Friday, for electoral fraud. She faces charges for allegedly rigging the 2020 polls that her party won in a landslide, a source said.
The latest sentence takes the total jail time the Nobel prize winner is facing to two decades. She was “sentenced to three years’ imprisonment with hard labour”, a source with knowledge of the case said, adding that Suu Kyi, 77, appeared to be in good health.
The source added that Suu Kyi’s lawyers are set to appeal the verdict.
Since a coup that toppled her government in 2021, uu Kyi had already been convicted of corruption and a host of other charges by a closed junta court. She already has a sentence of 17 years in prison.
Journalists have been forbidden from witnessing proceedings in the military-built capital Naypyidaw and her lawyers have been stopped from talking to the press.
Ex-president Win Myint, who was on trial for the same charge, also received a jail sentence of three years, the source said. A junta spokesman did not respond to a request for comment.
The military claimed that there was widespread voter fraud during the November 2020 election. The poll was won comprehensively by Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD). International observers contented that the the poll was largely free and fair.
The military has since annulled the result and said it found more than 11 million cases of voter fraud.
Last month, junta chief Min Aung Hlaing insisted the military was being “lenient” on Suu Kyi and could have taken “more serious actions” against her.
