Aung San Kuu Kyi sentenced to 4 years of prison for 'inciting dissent'

Former de facto leader of Myanmar Aung San Suu Kyi and ousted President Win Myint have been sentenced to four years in prison on charges of inciting dissent and breaking Covid rules under a natural disasters law. The sentence is predicted to be the first in a series of verdicts that could jail the former State Councillor for life. Suu Kyi presently faces a total of 11 charges, including one of violating the Official Secrets Act, all of which she has denied.

Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) government was ousted in a military coup on February 1st. She has been under house arrest in an undisclosed location since. The coup was staged after the military alleged massive voting fraud in the November 2020 general elections; the NLD won a majority in both houses of Parliament. The party, which had been running the government since 2016, also won an absolute majority in the 2015 general elections. The five-year term of the government was expected to end in March 2021.

After the military coup, Suu Kyi and Win Myint were detained together with other NLD officials. An emergency was declared, and the state power was transferred to Commander-in-Chief of Defense Services Sen-Gen Min Aung Hlaing.

Since then, the country has witnessed demonstrations by pro-democracy protesters, activists and journalists. The army cracked down heavily upon them, and over 10,600 have been arrested since February. Furthermore, at least 1,303 were killed in the demonstrations, as per the monitoring group Assistance Association for Political Prisoners.