Human Rights Watch (HRW) has spoken out against the litany of cases against Aung San Suu Kyi that effectively imprison her for life.

Here is the statement by Phil Robertson, Deputy Asia Director, on the sentencing of Aung San Suu Kyi for corruption related to helicopter cases, 30 December 2022 and what it means for Myanmar’s former civilian leader.

“The Myanmar junta’s farcical, totally unjust parade of charges and convictions against Aung San Suu Kyi amount to politically motivated punishment designed to hold her behind bars for the rest of her life. The convictions aim to both permanently sideline her, as well as undermine and ultimately negate her NLD party’s landslide victory in the November 2020 election. From start to finish, the junta grabbed whatever it could to manufacture cases against her with full confidence that the country’s kangaroo courts would come back with whatever punitive judgements the military wanted. Due process and a free and fair trial were never remotely possible under the circumstances of this political persecution against her. Since Suu Kyi is now 77 years old, these 33 years of cumulative imprisonment amount to an effective life sentence against her.”

Robertson adds: “By issuing these verdicts during the New Year’s holiday, the junta is obviously hoping the international community will miss this news, and there will be little global publicity about the final result of the military’s blatantly unjust campaign against Suu Kyi. The international community should respond with strong, meaningful sanctions that target the oil and gas revenue of the junta, starting with the US government sanctioning the Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise (MOGE). As long as international action consists of just jaw-boning the junta without cutting off their revenue sources, Myanmar’s generals will keep brushing those actions aside, committing rights abuses with impunity, and holding a Nobel Prize winner as a political prisoner.”