A special court set up by Myanmar's military government on Wednesday sentenced deposed leader Aung San Suu Kyi to three years in prison on corruption charges, adding to the total time the democracy icon will have to spend behind bars, legal sources said.
The latest sentencing brings the 77-year-old Nobel Peace laureate's total prison sentence to 26 years. She has already been convicted on separate corruption charges, as well as incitement, election fraud, violation of novel coronavirus regulations and the illegal import and use of walkie-talkies.
Suu Kyi, a symbol of democratic opposition to the military, had been detained and put on trial on multiple charges following the military's ouster of her democratically-elected government in a February 2021 coup.
According to Wednesday's ruling, she allegedly accepted bribes of more than $550,000 from a businessman between 2018 and 2020.
Last month, she was sentenced, along with her former economic adviser, to three years in prison for violating the official secrets law.
Suu Kyi's supporters say the charges against her, all of which she denies, are politically motivated. So far, she has been sentenced to prison time in 14 different cases.
Her trials have been conducted behind closed doors at a court set up inside a jail in the country's administrative capital Naypyitaw, where she is being held.
Authorities have barred her lawyers from publicly discussing the trial.
The military has said that Suu Kyi is being held in prison but that she is being housed "separately" from other inmates and "under fair conditions."
Local media reports, quoting sources close to the trial, said Suu Kyi appeared in good health during Wednesday's hearing and that she plans to appeal the verdict.
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