BANGKOK — A court in military-ruled Myanmar convicted former leader Aung San Suu Kyi in another criminal case Thursday and sentenced Australian economist Sean Turnell to three years in prison for violating Myanmar’s official secrets act, a legal official said.
Suu Kyi received a three-year sentence after being convicted with Turnell under the secrets law, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to release information about the case.
Three members of her Cabinet were also found guilty, each receiving sentences of three years.
Turnell was also convicted of violating immigration law, for which he was given a three-year sentence to be served concurrently with the term for violating the secrets law. The 20 months he has already spent in detention will be deducted from his sentence, leaving him less than a year and a half to serve.
Turnell, 58, an associate professor in economics at Sydney’s Macquarie University, had served as an adviser to Suu Kyi, who was detained in the capital Naypyitaw when her elected government was ousted by the army on Feb. 1, 2021.
Family and friends expressed hope he will soon be freed and deported, as has occurred with other foreigners in Myanmar convicted of political offenses, though less serious ones.
“It’s heartbreaking for me, our daughter, Sean’s 85-year-old father, and the rest of our family to hear that my husband, Professor Sean Turnell, was convicted and sentenced to 3 years’ imprisonment,” his wife Ha Vu, also an economist, said on her Facebook page. “Sean has been one of Myanmar’s greatest supporters for over 20 years and has worked tirelessly to strengthen Myanmar’s economy.”
“My husband has already been in a Myanmar prison for almost 2/3 of his sentence,” she added. “Please consider the contributions that he has made to Myanmar, and deport him now!”
Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong’s office rejected the court’s ruling and called for Turnell’s immediate release. Decrying that he had been “unjustly detained,” her office said Australian diplomats were denied access to the court hearing for the verdict.
“We will continue to take every opportunity to advocate strongly for Professor Turnell until he has returned to his family in Australia,” it said in a statement.
Turnell was arrested five days after the military takeover by security forces at a hotel in Yangon, the country’s biggest city. He had arrived back in Myanmar from Australia less than a month before that to take up a new position as a special consultant to Suu Kyi. As director of the Myanmar Development Institute, he had already lived in Naypyitaw for several years.
The day after the military’s takeover, he posted on Twitter: “Safe for now but heartbroken for what all this means for the people of Myanmar. The bravest, kindest people I know. They deserve so much better.”
The five co-defendants were charged on the basis of documents seized from Turnell. The exact details of their offense have not been made public, though state television said last year that Turnell had access to “secret state financial information” and had tried to flee the country.
Turnell and Suu Kyi denied the allegations when they testified in their defense at the trial in August.
Myanmar’s colonial-era official secrets act criminalizes the possession, collection, recording, publishing, or sharing of state information that is “directly or indirectly, useful to an enemy.” The charge carries a maximum penalty of 14 years in prison. (AP)