Aung San Suu Kyi, the country’s ousted former leader and recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, has been sentenced by a court in military-run Myanmar to an additional three years in prison for corruption, bringing her total sentence to 26 years in prison, a person familiar with the matter told CNN.
The 77-year-old, who served as a symbol of resistance to decades of military dictatorship and oversaw Myanmar for five years before being ousted in a coup in early 2021, is the latest victim of a spate of penalties.
According to the source, Suu Kyi was convicted guilty of accepting $500,000 in bribes from a local entrepreneur, a claim she vigorously rejected. According to her attorneys, the several offences brought against her are motivated by politics.
At the moment, Suu Kyi is being held in solitary confinement in the city of Naypyidaw.
Suu Kyi was convicted guilty of electoral fraud this month and given a sentence of three years in jail followed by hard labour. The trial was related to the general election in November 2020, where her National League for Democracy narrowly defeated a party founded by the military.
Since the military takeover in 2021, Suu Kyi had not previously been given a harsh labour sentence. In a second trial under a prior administration in 2009, she received the same punishment, but her sentence was commuted.
Suu Kyi has also previously been found guilty of offenses ranging from graft to election violations.
Rights groups have repeatedly expressed concerns about the punishment of pro-democracy activists in the country since the military seized power.
