Aung San Suu Kyi was convicted of three criminal charges. She is on trial for nearly a dozen cases that carry maximum sentences of more than 100 years in prison.
The Nobel Peace Prize laureate has faced an onslaught of legal charges since being detained on February 1 last year after her government was overthrown in an early morning coup by the army.
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What are the latest charges against Suu Kyi?
The 76-year-old was given a two-year sentence for breaching the export-import law by importing and owning walkie-talkies, and one year for having a set of signal jammers.
Both sentences will run concurrently.
These charges stem from when her house was raided on the day of the coup.
The court also handed down a further two-year sentence for breaching the natural disaster management law related to coronavirus rules while campaigning.
Suu Kyi was convicted last month on two other charges — incitement and breaching COVID-19 restrictions — for which she was given four years in jail.
The head of the country's military junta Min Aung Hlaing later halved that sentence and said she could serve her term under house arrest in the capital Naypyidaw.
Suu Kyi's supporters say the charges against her are baseless and contrived to end her political career while legitimizing the military takeover.
"The Myanmar junta's courtroom circus of secret proceedings on bogus charges is all about steadily piling up more convictions against Aung San Suu Kyi so that she will remain in prison indefinitely," said Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director of Human Rights Watch.
The Nobel committee said the convictions were "politically motivated."
Tin Tin Nyo, head of news organization Burma News International, told DW the charges were designed to keep Aung San Suu Kyi from power.
"This is not a surprise at all. The military regime is trying every possible way to lock down Aung San Suu Kyi away from Burmese politics," she said. "These are all excuses."
"We are not surprised but we are very sad that one of the leaders of our country are being kept away from us and from the people of Burma who are now being attacked and killed daily."
The security forces quashed the protests with deadly force, killing over 1,400 civilians, according to a detailed list compiled by the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners.
The military has also not disclosed where Suu Kyi is being detained.
Junta leader Min Aung Hlaing last month said both Suu Kyi and ousted President Win Myint would remain in the same location during their trials and would not be sent to prison.
Aung San Suu Kyi: From freedom fighter to pariah
Myanmar's Aung San Suu Kyi had the global community rooting for her when she was the world's most famous political prisoner. But in recent years she was accused of standing by while soldiers massacred Rohingya Muslims.
Image: Reuters
Darling of democracy
Aung San Suu Kyi, the daughter of Myanmar's assassinated founding father Aung San, returned to her home country in the late 1980s after studying and starting a family in England. She became a key figure in the 1988 uprisings against the country's military dictatorship. Her National League for Democracy (NLD) was victorious in 1990 elections, but the government refused to honor the vote.
Image: dapd
Military rule
Suu Kyi spent 15 of the 21 years between 1989 and 2010 under house arrest. After 1995, the rights advocate was barred from seeing her two sons and husband, Michael Aris, even after the latter was diagnosed with cancer. Aris, seen here displaying an honorary doctorate awarded to his wife, died in 1999.
Image: TORSTEN BLACKWOOD/AFP
'The Lady'
Suu Kyi's determination to bring democracy and human rights to her country won her international renown, including the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize. She was so popular that in 2011 famous French director Luc Besson made a biopic of her life starring Malaysian actor Michelle Yeoh. Suu Kyi was often called the world's most famous political prisoner.
Image: picture alliance/dpa/Seven Media/Doha Film Institute
Sworn in as lawmaker
Decades of campaigning finally paid off, and in 2012 Suu Kyi was allowed to run in free elections. She won a seat in parliament as Myanmar began its transition away from military government. After general elections in 2015, she became the country's de facto civilian leader, although officially she held the post of foreign minister and state counselor — a role akin to prime minister.
Image: AP
Persecution of the Rohingya
Rohingya, a mostly Muslim ethnic group, had their citizenship revoked by Myanmar's Buddhist-majority government in 1982. Long persecuted, their plight intensified in 2016 when Myanmar's military began what it called "clearance" of illegal immigrants. Groups such as Human Rights Watch have described it as "ethnic cleansing." Thousands have died, and hundreds of thousands have fled their homes.
Image: Reuters/D. Siddiqui
Fall from grace
When she became state counselor in 2016, Suu Kyi set up a commission to investigate claims of atrocities against the Rohingya in Rakhine state. Suu Kyi accused the Rohingya of spreading "a huge iceberg of misinformation," and said she was concerned by the "terrorist threat" posed by extremists. Her stance sparked protests in Muslim-majority countries around the world.
Image: picture-alliance/Zumapress/J. Laghari
Nobel no more?
Due to her handling of the Rohingya crisis, Suu Kyi was stripped of various honors and lost much of her international support. The Nobel committee was forced to issue a statement saying that her peace prize could not be revoked. Fellow Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai called on Suu Kyi to "stop the violence." Suu Kyi said that outsiders could not grasp the complexities of the situation.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
A controversial election
In 2020, Myanmar's ruling National League for Democracy party won the November 8 general election, with enough seats to form the next government. However, the military's proxy party, the Union Solidarity and Development party, claimed fraud and demanded a new election supervised by the military. With that came comments alluding to a possible coup. Supporters of the party also marched in protest.
Image: Shwe Paw Mya Tin/REUTERS
Military detains Suu Kyi
Myanmar's civilian leader, along with several of her political allies, were detained in an early morning raid on February 1, 2021 led by the military. The move came amid escalating tensions between the civilian government and army, which had been in control for decades.The junta claimed electoral fraud, announced a yearlong state of emergency and named a former general as acting president.
