This is the end of a procedure that lasted 18 months.
Burmese leader Aung San Suu Kyi was sentenced by a junta court to an additional seven years in prison for corruption on Friday, in the latest part of her river trial, a total of 33 years behind bars, said a judicial source told AFP on Friday.
A court in the capital Naypyidaw, which sits exceptionally in the penitentiary center where Aung San Suu Kyi was placed in solitary confinement, found the former leader guilty of five counts of corruption against her.
In a case of helicopter rental for a minister, she was accused of not having respected the rules and of having caused “a loss for the State”.
“All her cases are over, there are no more charges against her,” said a source who requested anonymity.
In “good health” but not very visible
The famous 77-year-old opponent appeared to be in "good health" according to a judicial source.
The 1991 Nobel Peace Prize laureate has been imprisoned since the February 1, 2021 military coup that ended a brief period of freedom in this Southeast Asian country with a turbulent history.
She has only been seen a very few times, in grainy photos taken by state media in an empty courtroom.
Read alsoBurma: five minutes to understand the army coup
Corruption, electoral fraud, violation of state secrets and anti-Covid restrictions… Since the start of the legal proceedings, which began in June 2021, Aung San Suu Kyi has been convicted of multiple offences.
She could serve part of her prison sentence under house arrest, experts say.
The end of his trial, described as a legal sham by human rights groups, opens a new period of uncertainty in Burma, with the prospect of elections in 2023 promised by the junta, in search of legitimacy.
The two most recent legislative elections, in 2015 and 2020, propelled the National League for Democracy (NLD), the emblematic party founded by Aung San Suu Kyi in the late 1980s, to power. The army justified its coup d'etat of 2021 by claiming to have discovered millions of irregular votes during the last ballot, considered to be generally free by international observers.
His plan to hold new elections has been criticized by the United States, but welcomed by its close ally and arms supplier, Russia.
UN Resolution on Burma
The UN Security Council this month called for the immediate release of Aung San Suu Kyi, in its first resolution in decades on the situation in Burma.
This call, which came in a rare moment of unity, was made possible thanks to the abstention of China and Russia, usual supporters of Naypyidaw, who renounced their right of veto.
The junta immediately accused the UN of wanting to "destabilize" the country.
Aung San Suu Kyi remains a popular figure in Burma, even if her international image has been damaged by her inability to defend the Muslim minority of the Rohingyas, victims of army abuse in 2016 and 2017 - a "genocide" according to Washington.
Burma descended after the coup into a period of chaos, with daily violence between the army and self-constituted militias who accuse each other of killing hundreds of civilians.
More than 2,600 people have been killed under the junta's repression, according to a local NGO.
Several rights groups have accused the Burmese military of launching airstrikes on civilians, which constitute war crimes.
The army, for its part, counted 4,000 civilians killed.