Myanmar's Aung San Suu Kyi to appeal prison sentence

The country has slid into chaos since a military coup in February 2021

Aung San Suu Kyi speaks at an event in Yangon, Myanmar in 2011. Legal officials in Myanmar says its Supreme Court has scheduled hearings for this month to consider appeals concerning her convictions in cases brought by the military government. AP PhotoShow less

Deposed Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi will appeal to the country’s Supreme Court against a number of convictions for which she received a combined sentence of 33 years' imprisonment, legal officials said on Saturday.

The cases against her are mostly brought by the military that seized power from her elected government in February 2021, leading to months of street protests and violent crackdowns.

The unrest has now developed into a simmering civil war, which has seen rebels mount drive-by shooting attacks against security forces and raid police stations.

The military has escalated air strikes against villages suspected of sheltering rebels, killing hundreds of civilians, acts widely condemned as war crimes.

Villagers and resistance fighters gather and bury what they say are victims of an airstrike by planes of the military government, outside the town of Pasuang in Myanmar's eastern state of Kayah on Sunday, June 25, 2023. The military government use air and ground attacks to try to crush the armed resistance that arose after the military seized power from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in February 2021. Fighting has been fierce in isouthern Kayah, where members of an army-established ethnic Karenni militia recently defected en masse to the resistance side. (Free Burma Rangers via AP)

The 78-year-old Ms Suu Kyi was arrested following the military takeover and tried on a variety of charges that supporters and rights groups say were concocted to discredit her and prevent her from resuming an active role in politics.

She has not been seen or allowed to speak in public since she was arrested and her lawyers have been barred from speaking to the press about her cases since late 2021.

Two legal officials familiar with the cases filed against Ms Suu Kyi said the Supreme Court planned to hear her appeals on July 5 in two cases in which she was convicted of election fraud and breaching the country’s official secrets act. She received a three-year sentence for each case in September last year.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorised to release information about Ms Suu Kyi’s cases.

They said the court was due on July 12 to hear appeals against her conviction on five corruption charges, where she was found guilty of abusing her position and causing a loss of state funds by neglecting to heed financial regulations. She received seven years of prison time in total for the five cases, which involved granting permission to Win Myat Aye, a Cabinet member in her former government, to hire, buy and maintain a helicopter.

The court set a date of July 18 for a hearing on whether to accept special appeals to reduce the sentences against her in cases where she was convicted of sedition, illegally importing and possessing walkie-talkies and violating Covid restrictions, the legal officials said.

Special appeals are usually the final stage of the appeals process in Myanmar.

Initial appeals filed by her lawyers in most of her cases have already been rejected at least once by lower courts. Appeals of her convictions on seven other corruption charges are still being processed, the legal officials said.

Ms Suu Kyi’s legal team has faced several hurdles, including being unable to meet with her to receive her instructions as they prepared her appeals.

They have applied five times for permission to meet with Ms Suu Kyi since they last saw her in person in December, but have not received any response, the legal officials said.

At least 19,295 political detainees, including Ms Suu Kyi, were being held in Myanmar as of Friday, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, a watchdog group that tracks tallies of arrests and killings by security forces.