Aung San Suu Kyi sentenced to 4 years for importing walkie-talkies

Aung San Suu Kyi has been sentenced by a military-controlled court in Myanmar to four years in prison after she was convicted in three criminal cases, including for illegally importing and possessing walkie-talkies.

The walkie-talkies were discovered in a raid on the deposed leader’s government villa in the capital Naypyidaw during a coup in February.

A person with knowledge of the court proceedings told the Financial Times that she had been sentenced on Monday to two years for violating an export-import law and another year for breaking Myanmar’s communications law.

The sentences are to be served concurrently, according to the person, who spoke anonymously because the military junta has barred the former leader’s lawyers from communicating with reporters.

She was also sentenced to another two years under Myanmar’s national disaster management law for breaching coronavirus rules, which means the 76-year-old politician will serve four years in total for the three cases.

Human Rights Watch called the verdict a “courtroom circus of secret proceedings on bogus charges” aimed at keeping her in prison indefinitely, and described the conviction over the walkie-talkies as “ludicrous”.

Phil Robertson, HRW’s deputy Asia director, said: “General Min Aung Hlaing and the junta leaders obviously still view her as a paramount political threat who needs to be permanently neutralised.”

Myanmar prohibits anyone convicted of crimes from holding political office.

Min Aung Hlaing’s regime has brought about a dozen criminal cases against Aung San Suu Kyi since the February 1 coup. Last month she was given a four-year sentence for inciting dissent against the military and breaching the country’s disaster management law. Min Aung Hlaing halved that sentence to two years.

Aung San Suu Kyi has been held by the regime at undisclosed locations since she was arrested alongside scores of elected officials on the morning of the coup, including President Win Myint and Sean Turnell, an Australian academic who served as her economic adviser.

The Nobel laureate, who remains hugely popular in Myanmar and led her National League for Democracy party to a second election victory in 2020, has been given only limited access to lawyers.

Min Aung Hlaing’s regime has killed more than 1,400 people and arrested more than 11,000 since the coup, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, a human rights group.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the regional grouping currently chaired by Cambodia’s leader Hun Sen, is leading unsuccessful efforts to broker a solution to the political crisis precipitated by the coup.

Twitter: @JohnReedwrites