Overthrown Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi has been sentenced to four years in prison in a move that could lead to life imprisonment.
The charges were of incitement and breaking Covid-19 under a natural disasters law.
Suu Kyi, 76, was Myanmar’s state counselor and de facto civilian leader of the country before she was ousted and placed under house arrest by the military 10 months ago and hit with almost a dozen charges that add up to combined maximum sentences of more than 100 years.
She faces 11 charges in total, which have been widely condemned as unjust. She has denied all charges.
It is not clear when or if Ms Suu Kyi will be placed in prison.
Co-defendant Win Myint, the former president and Ms Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) party ally, was also jailed on Monday for four years under the same charges.
Rights group Amnesty called the charges “bogus”, saying it was the “latest example of the military’s determination to eliminate all opposition and suffocate freedoms in Myanmar.”
Myanmar’s military taken moves to restrict information about the trials, which is closed to the public. In October, a gag order was imposed on her legal team which prevents them from speaking with the media.
Ms Suu Kyi is next due in court on 14 December, when she will face charges of possessing illegal walkie-talkies.
More than 1,300 people have been killed by Myanmar security forces since the coup, and more than 10,000 arrested, according to advocacy group Assistance Association for Political Prisoners.
The case against Suu Kyi concerning violating Covid restrictions is based on her waving at a group of supporters during last year’s election campaign while wearing a mask and face shield.
In the other she was found guilty of inciting unrest for a statement calling for public opposition to the coup, put out by her party after she had already been taken into custody.
Little has been seen or heard of her apart from her brief court appearances.
The military had seized power alleging voter fraud in general elections held last year in which the NLD won by a landslide.
However, independent election observers have said the elections were largely free and fair.
Suu Kyi is one of more than 10,600 people to have been arrested by the junta since February, and at least 1,303 others killed in the demonstrations, according to the monitoring group Assistance Association for Political Prisoners.
Aung San Suu Kyi, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her work to bring democracy to Myanmar, had previously spent nearly 15 years in detention at the hands of the military between 1989 and 2010.
Her party, the National League for Democracy (NLD) won a landslide victory in 2015, but she was prevented from becoming president herself by rules restricting those with foreign national children from holding same office. She was regarded as the de facto ruler of the country.
However her reputation abroad was severely damaged by the way she handled the Rohingya crisis, which started in 2017.
In 2019 Suu Kyi appeared at the UN International Court of Justice (ICJ) to defend her country against accusations of genocide.
