Suu Kyi appears in court after coup
Myanmar’s ousted leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, appeared in court in person Monday for the first time since the military arrested her when it seized power on February 1. One of her lawyers, Min Min Soe, said that Suu Kyi was able to meet with her defence team for about 30 minutes before the hearing began. Monday’s hearing concerned several of the six charges Suu Kyi faces and was largely procedural. The most serious charge that Suu Kyi faces is breaching the colonial-era Official Secrets Act, which carries a penalty of up to 14 years’ imprisonment.
NAYPYIDAW/BANGKOK: Deposed Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi voiced defiance on Monday as she made her first court appearance since the military detained her in a coup, vowing her political party would live on.
Myanmar has been in uproar since the February 1 putsch, with near-daily protests and a nationwide civil disobedience movement. The junta has threatened to dissolve Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) party - which swept elections in 2020 - over alleged voter fraud.
The Nobel laureate - who has not been seen in public since the coup - sounded “healthy and fully confident” during the 30-minute meeting, her lawyer Min Min Soe told AFP. “She wishes her people to stay healthy as well as affirmed the NLD will exist as long as people exist because it was founded for people.” The next hearing was set for June 7, Min Min Soe said, adding she had also met Win Myint, former president who was ousted and detained along with Suu Kyi. Senior NLD figure Myo Aung also appeared in the court. On Monday, an American journalist working for a news magazine in Myanmar was detained by the authorities.
Frontier Myanmar, which publishes in both English and Burmese and also online, said on Twitter that Danny Fenster, its managing editor, was detained at Yangon airport as he was preparing to board a flight to Kuala Lumpur.