Today’s guilty verdict
against Daw Aung San Suu Kyi by a court in Myanmar has been described by
Amnesty International’s Secretary General Irene Khan as "shameful".
“Her arrest and trial and now this guilty verdict are nothing more than legal
and political theatre,” added Irene Khan.
On 11 August a court
in Yangon’s Insein prison found Myanmar’s pro-democracy leader guilty of violating
the conditions of her house arrest, after an uninvited man spent two nights
there in early May. Under Section 22 of Myanmar’s State Protection Act of 1975,
the court sentenced Daw Aung San Suu Kyi to three years’ imprisonment, commuted to 18 months under house arrest.
Photo: Demostrators hold up ASSK's picture in the early days of the Saffron Revolution.
This was less than the
maximum five years’ imprisonment allowed by law.
"The Myanmar
authorities will hope that a sentence that is shorter than the maximum will be
seen by the international community as an act of leniency. But it is not, and
must not be seen as such, especially by ASEAN or the UN. Daw Aung San Suu Kyi
has been detained for 13 of the past 20 years but should never have been arrested
in the first place. The only issue here is her immediate and unconditional
release”, said Irene Khan.
Amnesty International also
noted that Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, a prisoner of conscience, is one of more than
2,100 political prisoners in Myanmar.
Background
Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s
sentencing comes in the midst of ongoing human rights violations by the
military against ethnic minority civilians. In early June the Myanmar army
staged attacks and took Karen civilians for forced labour in Kayin State. This
resulted in over 3,500 refugees fleeing to Thailand.
****************************************
For more
information please call Amnesty International's press office in London, UK, on
+44 20 7413 5566 or email:
International
Secretariat, Amnesty International, 1 Easton St., London WC1X 0DW, UK
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Today’s guilty verdict
against Daw Aung San Suu Kyi by a court in Myanmar has been described by
Amnesty International’s Secretary General Irene Khan as "shameful".
“Her arrest and trial and now this guilty verdict are nothing more than legal
and political theatre,” added Irene Khan.