By AFP

(FILES) In this file photograph taken on January 15, 2020, Myanmar’s State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi speaks during a meeting with citizens as part of 68th Kayah State Day anniversary events in the state capital Loikaw. – Myanmar’s ousted civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi has been accused of breaking a colonial-era official secrets law, her lawyer said April 1, 2021. (Photo by Thet Aung / AFP)

A Myanmar junta court on Thursday sentenced two close aides of ousted civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi to two years in jail for sedition, a legal source told AFP.

The sentence, passed in a special court inside Yangon’s Insein prison, is the latest blow struck in the military authorities’ legal campaign against Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD).

The country has been in turmoil since February 1, when the generals deposed Suu Kyi’s civilian government after the NLD won a general election.

Protests against the coup have been met with ruthless force, leading to the deaths of more than 1,300 civilians, according to a local monitoring group, and drawing stern criticism from world governments.

Senior NLD figures have been hit with criminal charges, including Nobel laureate Suu Kyi herself, who faces a battery of allegations including corruption and violating the official secrets act.

Two members of the NLD’s central committee — economic advisor Han Thar Myint and Thein Oo — were sentenced to two years’ imprisonment on Thursday, a legal source close to the case said.

Journalists have not been given access to court hearings and lawyers are banned from speaking to the media.

Earlier this month Suu Kyi, who spent years in detention under a previous military regime, was jailed for four years for incitement against the military and breaching Covid restrictions.

Junta chief Min Aung Hlaing later reduced the term to two years and said she would serve her sentence under house arrest in the capital Naypyidaw.