Desk Report
Publish: 31 Jan 2022, 04:17 pm
Aung San Suu Kyi || Photo: Collected
Myanmar's junta has charged Aung San Suu Kyi with influencing
election officials during 2020 polls, a source said on Monday, a year after it
staged a coup alleging massive voter fraud.
Suu Kyi, 76, has been detained since
the February 1 coup last year that triggered mass protests and a bloody
crackdown on dissent with nearly 1,500 civilians killed, according to a local
monitoring group.
The Nobel laureate is facing a raft
of charges -- including violating the country's official secrets laws -- and if
convicted of all of them could face sentences tallying more than 100 years in
prison.
She will face a further trial on
charges of influencing the country's election commission during the 2020 polls
that saw her party defeat a military-aligned rival, a source with knowledge of
the case said.
The case will be wrapped up within
six months, the source added.
Former president and stalwart of the
National League for Democracy (NLD) party Win Myint will face the same charge,
the source said.
Several senior members of the
national electoral commission have also been arrested since the coup, accused
of masterminding the NLD's landslide victory.
The junta cancelled the results of
the 2020 election in July last year, saying it had found some 11.3 million
instances of fraud.
Independent monitors said the polls
were largely free and fair.
The junta has promised to hold
another election by August 2023 if the country -- currently riven by fighting
between the military and anti-coup fighters -- is restored.
Ahead of the Tuesday anniversary of
the putsch, the junta has warned that noisy protests or sharing
"propaganda" against the military could be charged with high treason
or under the anti-terrorism law.
Suu Kyi has already been sentenced to
six years in jail for illegally importing and owning walkie talkies, incitement
against the military and breaking Covid-19 rules.
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Topic : Myanmar Aung San Suu Kyi
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