YANGON: Verdicts regarding charges of incitement and violating Covid-19 regulations against ousted Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi have been postponed to next week, according to sources with knowledge of the proceedings.
The verdicts are now expected to be delivered on Monday.
Suu Kyi, 76, was arrested hours before a coup on February 1, as the military overthrew the country’s democratically elected civilian leaders and once again put the country under military rule.
She faces charges on 11 offences, including violating foreign trade laws, violating coronavirus measures, inciting sedition, and corruption. Together, they carry a combined maximum sentence of 101years.
Her lawyers refute the charges and her supporters claim that the charges are politically motivated, an attempt to keep her out ofpolitics for the rest of her life.
Her cases have been heard along with those of co-defendant Win Myint, the ousted president, at a court in Naypyitaw since June.
Myanmar has been in a political turmoil since the coup, with the military struggling with resistance forces, who have fought back with everything from peaceful street protests and civil disobedience movements to armed revolution with hundreds of local resistance forces fighting soldiers across the country.
According to the rights group the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, more than 10,000 people have been arrested and almost 1,300 people killed since the coup was launched.
Days after the coup Suu Kyi was hit with obscure charges for possessing unlicensed walkie-talkies, and for violating coronavirus restrictions during elections her National League for Democracy (NLD) won in 2020. The junta has since added a slew of other indictments, including violating the official secrets act, corruption and electoral fraud.
Suu Kyi now appears most weekdays at the junta courtroom, with her legal team saying last month the hectic schedule was taking a toll on the 76-year-old’s health.
Her long spells of house arrest under a previous junta were spent at her family’s colonial-era mansion in Yangon, where she would appear before thousands gathered on the other side of her garden fence.
Min Aung Hlaing’s regime has confined her to an undisclosed location in the capital, with her link to the outside world limited to brief pre-trial meetings with her lawyers.
In recent weeks, the trials of other ranking members of Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy have wrapped up, with the junta doling out harsh sentences.
A former chief minister was sentenced to 75 years in jail earlier this month, while a close Suu Kyi aide was jailed for 20.
The military, which has dominated life in Myanmar for decades, has defended its power grab, citing fraud allegations in last year’s general election, which Suu Kyi’s party won comfortably.
International pressure on the junta to restore democracy swiftly has shown no sign of knocking the generals off course, and bloody clashes with anti-coup protesters continue across the country. Around 20 anti-coup demonstrators marched in the centre of commercial hub Yangon on Tuesday, local media showed, chanting slogans and burning a portrait of junta chief Min Aung Hlaing. – dpa/AFP
