For 21 months, Aung San Suu Kyi, one of the world’s most well-known and polarizing pro-democracy figures, has been locked away by an authoritarian junta in Myanmar. No one can visit her. She can’t receive phone calls, letters or anything printed on paper, according to a person with knowledge of her situation.
Increasingly, it looks like Ms. Suu Kyi is serving a life sentence.
Since Myanmar’s military generals ousted her in a coup last year, they have brought a litany of charges against the country’s former leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner. Prison sentences followed at a steady clip: two years for alleged incitement and flouting pandemic-linked restrictions; four years on charges including illegally importing walkie-talkies; three years for violating a colonial-era official secrets law and more for alleged corruption and election fraud.
All told, she has been convicted of 14 charges and sentenced to 26 years in prison—actions her lawyers and human-rights groups say are politically motivated. Last week, Ms. Suu Kyi appeared at a court in Myanmar’s capital Naypyitaw for a hearing related to five more corruption charges that could add decades to her term.
The sentences appear designed to end the threat posed to the junta by Ms. Suu Kyi, whose epoch-defining political career has been marked by dramatic twists of fate.
Ms. Suu Kyi rose as a democratic icon in the late-1980s fighting a dictatorship that had ruled Myanmar since 1962. She eventually spent 15 years as a political prisoner. In a stunning political turn, she became the country’s de facto elected leader in 2015, but faced international censure in that role for her handling of military atrocities against ethnic minorities.
Now, back as a political prisoner at age 77, the chances of a comeback are remote. The military junta that seized power on Feb. 1, 2021, hasn’t shown any signs it is willing to compromise or restart democratization.
Even if she is freed, the country’s pro-democracy forces…
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