A Myanmar military court has sentenced Aung San Suu Kyi to seven more years in prison, bringing her total prison time to 33 years.
The country’s former democratically elected leader has been under house arrest since a military coup toppled his government in February 2021.
Since then he has faced 18 months of trials on 19 charges – which rights groups say is a sham.
The United Nations Security Council demanded their release last week.
On Friday, he was sentenced on the last five charges he faced. A court found him guilty of corruption because he did not follow the rules and regulations for hiring a helicopter for a government minister.
She has already been convicted of 14 different offences, including breaching Covid public safety laws, importing walkie-talkies and breaching the Official Secrets Act.
His trials this year have been held behind closed doors, with public and media access restricted and his lawyers barred from speaking to journalists. He has denied all the allegations leveled against him.
The 77-year-old Nobel laureate has spent most of his time under house arrest in the capital, Nay Pyi Taw.
According to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma), Ms Suu Kyi and many members of her party are among more than 16,600 people the junta has arrested since taking power – 13,000 in prison.
Last week, the UN Security Council called for an end to violence in Myanmar and the release of all political prisoners. China and Russia abstained from voting and did not exercise their veto power after the wording of the resolution was amended.
Amnesty International previously said the “extreme legal attack” on Ms Suu Kyi showed how the military had “weaponised the courts to bring politically motivated or ludicrous charges against opponents”.
A violent military takeover last February sparked mass protests, prompting Myanmar’s military to crack down on pro-democracy protesters and activists.
It also triggered renewed internal fighting between separate ethnic rebel groups, a civilian force that resists the military and junta rulers.
The junta has been accused of extrajudicial killings and airstrikes on civilian villages. According to an estimate, more than 2,600 people have been killed so far in the army’s crackdown on dissent.
