Myanmar Supreme Court to hear appeal of jailed former leader Suu Kyi

The Supreme Court in military-ruled Myanmar will hear an appeal by deposed leader Aung San Suu Kyi against her convictions for corruption and violating election and state secrets laws, according to a source familiar with the matter, Reuters reports.

The 77-year-old Nobel laureate is serving 33 years in prison after convictions in more than a dozen cases that Suu Kyi has called absurd and her allies say were orchestrated by the junta to destroy her political career.

Suu Kyi’s former ruling National League for Democracy (NLD) party won re-election in a landslide in November 2020 but the army arrested her three months later during a coup and annulled the vote, citing unaddressed irregularities.

The source, who declined to be identified due to the sensitivity of matter, said no date had been set by the Supreme Court to hear the appeal of Suu Kyi and co-defendant Win Myint, the ousted former president.

“Today the judge accepted the proposals to listen to the appeals on those seven cases,” the source said.

The appeal comes as the military struggles to assert control over large parts of Myanmar and intensifies air and ground operations against ethnic minority armies and a pro-democracy resistance movement.

The popular, Oxford-educated Suu Kyi has spent much of her political life detained under military governments and is currently being held in an annex of a prison in the capital Naypyitaw.

She led Myanmar for five years from 2015 during a decade of tentative democracy and tense power-sharing with the military after it ended its 49-year rule in 2011.

The military plans to hold an election at an undisclosed time but last month dissolved the NLD and dozens of other parties after they failed to register. The army’s proxy party is expected to dominate the election.