Sean Turnell was convicted alongside Aung San Suu Kyi, for whom he worked as an economic adviser before to her deposition last year.
According to reports, an Australian court condemned Australian economist Sean Turnell to three years in prison alongside ousted civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who was toppled in last year’s coup.
Reuters reported on Thursday morning, citing a “person familiar with the proceedings,” that the couple had been sentenced to “three years apiece, no hard labour.” According to Reuters, the sentencing took place in a closed court.
Turnell, a former associate professor at Sydney’s Macquarie University, was detained in February 2021, few days after the military coup against the National League for Democracy (NLD) administration. According to The Associated Press, he had returned to Myanmar from Australia less than a month before the coup to take up a new post as a special consultant to Aung San Suu Kyi. He has been detained since.
The specifics of Turnell’s alleged crime are unknown, while Myanmar state television reported at the time of his detention that he was attempting to exit the country with “secret state financial information.”
Turnell’s friend and colleague economist Tim Harcourt told The Age that the conviction was “outrageous,” and that any notion that he took sensitive papers was preposterous. “He should be freed, deported, and returned to Australia right now,” Harcourt added. “He’s nothing more than a technical economist who wished to help Burmese people get out of poverty.”
Turnell and his co-defendants – who included three former ministers indicted in the same case as well as Aung San Suu Kyi – were formally prosecuted under Myanmar’s Official Secrets Act in June. The nebulous and sometimes misapplied colonial-era rule forbids the ownership, collecting, recording, publication, or sharing of governmental information that is “directly or indirectly advantageous to an adversary.” The defendants all pled not guilty to the accusation.
Thursday’s judgement adds to Aung San Suu Kyi’s string of convictions since the coup, on accusations ranging from sedition and violation of COVID-19 guidelines to the unlawful import and possession of walkie-talkies.
According to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, the couple are among the most high-profile of the 15,683 persons jailed for defying the military regime. More than 12,500 of them are still detained.
While Aung San Suu Kyi’s conviction will have no effect on her destiny (she will stay in captivity as long as the military regime remains in power, notwithstanding fake court decisions), Turnell’s sentence might be the precursor to his release and deportation back to Australia. At least, that is the practise that the military has frequently used in the past with foreigners imprisoned for crossing political red lines. The most recent occurrence was American journalist Danny Fenster, who was detained by coup authorities in May 2021. Six months later, he was freed and deported, only days after being convicted and sentenced to 11 years in jail on sedition and other crimes.
The one unanswered question is whether the junta would see Turnell’s unique closeness to the NLD leadership in general, and to Aung San Suu Kyi in particular, as a disqualifying factor. Much will depend on the extent to which the Australian government works to gain his release in the next days and weeks.
Elaine Pearson of the advocacy organisation Human Rights Watch said in an emailed statement that with the judgement issued, it was “essential that the Australian government take all necessary actions to urge Myanmar’s regime to quickly free Turnell and bring him home.”
