Former Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has called on the Sri Lanka Government to pay attention to the sentencing of ousted Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
He said that Aung San Suu Kyi had ensured democracy in Myanmar.
Wickremesinghe said that the military grabbed power soon after Aung San Suu Kyi won the election.
“Its a military takeover,” he said.
The former Prime Minister said that the Sri Lanka Government must not remain silent on the Myanmar issue.
Aung San Suu Kyi was this week sentenced to four years in prison, the first in a series of verdicts that could jail her for life.
She was found guilty on charges of inciting dissent and breaking Covid rules under a natural disasters law.
Ms Suu Kyi faces 11 charges in total, which have been widely condemned as unjust. She has denied all charges.
She has been under house arrest since a military coup in February which toppled her elected civilian government.
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.”
The 76-year-old has been slapped with an array of charges, including multiple counts of corruption and violating the official secrets act.
In one case, Ms Suu Kyi was convicted of violating Covid restrictions for 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. (Colombo Gazette)
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