Suu Kyi trial gets under way
THE trial of deposed Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi got under way yesterday, more than four months after a military coup, with junta witnesses testifying that the Nobel laureate flouted coronavirus restrictions and illegally imported walkie-talkies.
Near 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 local monitoring group.
The junta has brought an eclectic raft of charges against the Nobel laureate, including claims that she accepted illegal payments of gold and violated a colonial-era secrecy law.
Yesterday 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, said her lawyer Min Min Soe.
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, said another member of her legal team, Khin Maung Zaw.
Journalists were barred from proceedings in the special court in the capital Naypyidaw, but a reporter said there was a strong 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 Daw Aung San Suu Kyi will overcome this trial,” Khin Maung Zaw told AFP after the hearing. “And she seems quite determined to assert her rights, whatever the results.”
A separate trial is scheduled to start today 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. “It is a show trial motivated only by political reasons,” Debbie Stothard,
the co-ordinator of the Alternative Asean Network on Burma, told AFP.
“Min Aung Hlaing is determined to lock up Aung San Suu Kyi for the rest of her life. If he could, he would probably charge her under every law available.”
Suu Kyi spent more than 15 years under house arrest during the previous junta’s rule before her 2010 release.
Her international reputation diminished following her defence of military-led violence against Myanmar’s marginalised Muslim Rohingya community. But the coup has returned Suu Kyi to the role of cloistered democracy icon.
Junta leader Min Aung Hlaing has justified his power grab by citing alleged electoral fraud in the November poll won by Suu Kyi’s NLD.