Myanmar's Aung San Suu Kyi back junta court on sedition charges
23 June, 2021
Deposed Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi appeared in a junta court again Tuesday (Jun 22) on trial for sedition and for flouting COVID-19 restrictions during an election her ousted party won in a landslide.
A mass uprising in Myanmar against a February military putsch has been met with a brutal crackdown that has killed a lot more than 870 civilians, according to an area monitoring group.
Under house arrest and invisible bar a small number of court appearances, Aung San Suu Kyi has been hit with an eclectic raft of charges, including accepting against the law payments of gold and violating a colonial-era secrecy law.
On Tuesday, the court heard testimony she violated COVID-19 restrictions during elections last year that her National League for Democracy (NLD) party won in a landslide, her legal professional The Maung Maung told reporters.
The special court in Naypyidaw also heard testimony on separate sedition charges.
Journalists were barred from the proceedings.
Aung San Suu Kyi appeared in good health, The Maung Maung said.
Brief meetings with her legal team have already been the only channel to the exterior world for Aung San Suu Kyi - who remains widely popular in Myanmar - since she was detained in February.
Junta leader Min Aung Hlaing has justified his power grab by citing alleged electoral fraud in the November poll and has threatened to dissolve the NLD.
Aung San Suu Kyi's legal representatives have said they expect the trial to summary by Jul 26.
The other charges against her include claims that she accepted against the law payments of gold and violated a colonial-era secrecy law.
The hearing came as soldiers battled an anti-junta civilian militia with small arms and grenades in the location of Mandalay on Tuesday, with at least four protesters and two security personnel killed, authorities said.
Fighting has flared across Myanmar because the February coup as people form "defence forces" to fight a brutal military crackdown on dissent, but previous clashes have largely been limited to rural areas.
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