Suu Kyi ordered to show up in court on May 24

YANGON: A judge on Monday ordered Myanmar’s deposed leader Aung San Suu Kyi to appear in person in court for the first time on May 24, her lawyer said, after weeks of delays in her case.

The Nobel laureate has not been seen in public since she was detained in a February 1 military coup, when the junta ousted her from power and took charge of the country.

She was later hit with a series of charges, and her lawyers faced an uphill battle to get a private audience with their client.

Multiple court hearings in the capital Naypyidaw have seen Suu Kyi - who attended via video conferencing from under house arrest - express frustration at the pace of the proceedings.

During the latest hearing on Monday, a judge ordered her cases to be heard with her present in a special courtroom near her residence.

“She will appear in person in court on May 24,” lawyer Khin Maung Zaw told AFP. The decision came as the country neared 100 days of the coup.

Myanmar poet Khet Thi, whose works declare resistance to the ruling junta, died in detention overnight and his body was returned with the organs removed, his family said.

A spokesman for the junta did not answer calls to request comment on the death of Khet Thi.

“He died at an hospital after being tortured in an interrogation centre,” the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners activist group said in a bulletin that put the toll of civilians killed since the military coup at 780.