Electoral Fraud Charges Against Suu Kyi on Eve of First Anniversary Coup

A Myanmar court has added electoral fraud to charges against ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi. Tomorrow/Tuesday, it will be one year since the 76-year-old Nobel Prize winner was pushed aside by the military junta.

 

Suu Kyi is already on trial for several other charges, including multiple corruption charges. She also received two prison sentences in January and December. If found guilty in all cases, she faces 160 years in prison.

Suu Kyi had been under house arrest for 15 years during her life. After becoming de facto head of government in 2016, she was initially very popular with the people of Myanmar. In November 2020, her party had won the parliamentary elections by a large margin.

Observers believe Suu Kyi became too dangerous for the generals, who ruled Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, for decades before the Nobel laureate came to power. A coup d’état followed on February 1, 2021.

According to them, the army command took over power because there was fraud in the elections. However, evidence for this has not been put on the table for the time being.

After the coup, large-scale protests broke out in Myanmar. They were brutally knocked down.