YANGON, Myanmar - Former Foreign Minister Win Aung has been sentenced to seven years in jail by a special court after being charged with misuse of authority by the ruling military regime, family sources said on Sunday.
| Kind of a light sentence for a prominent former regime member; they usually get tossed into an open grave. |
The family source, who demanded anonymity for fear of retribution by authorities, said Win Aung was being held in YangonÂ’s Insein prison. They did not specify the date of the verdict.
At a press briefing on Sunday, police chief Brig. Gen. Khin Yi confirmed sentence had been passed on Win Aung but declined to elaborate. The sources said Win Aung was arrested last October and his trial began early this year on charges connected to the sale of an imported car.
Previously a military intelligence colonel and a former ambassador to the United Kingdom, Win Aung became foreign minister in 1988. Win Aung was known to have been close to ex-Prime Minister Gen. Khin Nyunt, who was given a 44-year suspended sentence in July last year on charges including bribery and corruption. A number of other close associates area also serving jail terms in what was seen as a power struggle within the ruling junta.
| The current junta has something to look forward to when they lose the next power struggle. |
|