Raft of charges as Suu Kyi’s trial starts

NAYPYIDAW: The trial of deposed Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi got underway on Monday, more than four months after a military coup, with junta witnesses testifying that the Nobel laureate flouted Covid-19 restrictions and illegally imported walkie-talkies.

Daily protests have rocked Myanmar since the generals’ February 1 putsch.

A mass uprising has been met with a brutal military crackdown that has killed more than 850 civilians, according to a monitoring group.

The junta has brought a raft of charges against the Nobel laureate, including claims she accepted illegal payments of gold and violated a colonial-era secrecy law.

On Monday, the court heard a police force major testify that Suu Kyi broke coronavirus restrictions during last year’s elections that her National League for Democracy (NLD) party won in a landslide, her lawyer Min Min Soe said.

Another police major testified on separate charges accusing her of illegally importing and possessing walkie-talkies, she added.

Suu Kyi “paid keen attention” throughout the hearing, another member of her legal team, Khin Maung Zaw said.

Journalists were barred from proceedings in the special court in the capital Naypyidaw, but an AFP reporter said there was a heavy police presence outside.

Suu Kyi’s lawyers - who have struggled to gain access to their client - have said they expect the trial to wrap up by July 26.

“I’m confident Aung San Suu Kyi will overcome this trial,” Khin Maung Zaw said after the hearing. “And she seems quite determined to assert her rights, whatever the results.”

A separate trial is scheduled to start on Tuesday over sedition charges she faces alongside ousted president Win Myint and another senior member of the

NLD.

If convicted of all charges, Suu Kyi, 75, faces more than a decade in jail.

US journalist released

A US journalist detained in Myanmar since March was released on Monday. US citizen Nathan Maung “was released this morning from Insein prison as the police withdrew the charges against him”, and will fly back to the US on Tuesday, his lawyer Tin Zar Oo said.

Maung, who founded local outlet Kamayut Media, had faced charges under a colonialera law that criminalises encouraging dissent against the military, she added.