(Reuters) – Myanmar’s detained head of government Aung San Suu Kyi on Monday asked a court to meet her lawyers in person when she appeared at a hearing via video link to face charges from the military junta that could have imprisoned her for years. .
When Suu Kyi appeared, her supporters called on people to show their opposition to the February 1 coup during this week’s traditional New Year holiday in the largely Buddhist country.
Suu Kyi, 75, who has led Myanmar’s fight against military rule for decades and won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991, has been detained since the coup and has been charged with several crimes. These included violating an official colonial-era secrecy act that could put her in prison for 14 years.
She has only been allowed to speak to her lawyers via video link in front of security officials and it is not known if she is even aware of the unrest that has engulfed the country since the military took power.
“No, we didn’t, we could only talk about legal matters,” attorney Min Min Soe told Reuters when asked if her legal team could have talked to her about the protests that killed more than 700 people.
The lawyer said Suu Kyi looked healthy when she repeated a request to meet with her lawyers in person. The next hearing is on April 26.
In addition to being charged with official secrets, Suu Kyi has been accused of illegally possessing walkie-talkies and violating coronavirus protocols. She has also been charged by the ruling military council with bribery.
Her lawyers say the charges were fabricated and they dismiss the bribery charge as a joke.
An additional complaint was filed against her on Monday in connection with the coronavirus rules, Min Min Soe said.
The coup plunged Myanmar into crisis after 10 years of tentative steps towards democracy when the military withdrew from politics and allowed Suu Kyi to form a government after her party won elections in 2015.
The military says it had to overthrow its government because an election won again in November by its National League for Democracy was rigged. The election commission rejected the charge.
The coup has sparked relentless protests by those opposed to military rule, and incessant repression by the generals who say they alone can save the country from disintegration.
‘POWER OF PEOPLE’
Security forces have killed 706 protesters, including 46 children, since the coup, according to a count by the activist group of the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP).
That included 82 people who died in the city of Bago, about 70 km northeast of Yangon, on Friday.
Undeterred by the violence, activists this week called for resistance during the five-day traditional New Year, known as Thingyan, which begins Tuesday.
The main holiday of the year is usually celebrated with prayers, ritual cleansing of Buddha images in temples, and throwing resurrected water on the street.
The military council does not own Thingyan. People’s power is in people’s hands, ”Ei Thinzar Maung, a leader of the General Strike Collaboration Committee’s protest group, wrote on Facebook.
Ei Thinzar Maung called for a ‘folk Thingyan’, saying that Buddhists should wear certain religious attire and say prayers together, that members of small Christian communities should wear white and read psalms, and that followers of other religions should take the lead of their leaders must follow. .
According to reports on social media, security forces opened fire in the northwestern city of Tamu on Monday and police broke up a protest in the city of Mandalay.
Three civilians were killed in clashes between the military and the insurgents of the Kachin ethnic minority in the north, the online news service Irrawaddy reported.
Details of the violence were difficult to obtain due to the junta’s limitation on broadband internet and mobile data services.
A junta spokesperson was not available for comment.
Reporting by Reuters staff, written by Robert Birsel; edited by Jane Wardell & Simon Cameron-Moore and Angus MacSwan