Aung San Suu Kyi was sentenced to three years’ hard labor for violating the terms of her house arrest, but that sentence was quickly commuted with the result that her existing sentence of house arrest was effectively extended.
“The outcome of this trial has never been in doubt,” Jared Genser, her international counsel in Washington, said Tuesday after the verdict was announced. “The real question is how the international community will react — will it do more than simply condemn this latest injustice?”
An American, John Yettaw, who trespassed on the property where Aung San Suu Kyi was held and was accused of violating immigration laws, was given a seven-year sentence, including four years’ hard labor. His breach of the security perimeter resulted in Aung San Suu Kyi’s conviction, as well as the reprimanding of twenty police officers in Rangoon.
Aung San Suu Kyi is the only Nobel Peace Prize laureate currently imprisoned.