Naypyidaw, Myanmar:
The trial of deposed Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi was anticipated to hear its 1st testimony Monday, more than 4 months just after a military coup ousted her government.
Near everyday protests have rocked Myanmar due to the fact the generals’ February 1 putsch.
The mass uprising has been met with a brutal military crackdown that has killed more than 850 civilians, according to a regional monitoring group.
The junta has brought an eclectic raft of charges against the Nobel laureate, such as claims she accepted illegal payments of gold and violated a colonial-era secrecy law.
On Monday, her defence group was set to cross-examine witnesses more than charges she improperly imported walkie-talkies and violated coronavirus restrictions for the duration of last year’s elections that her National League for Democracy (NLD) party won in a landslide.
Her lawyers — who have been permitted to meet with her just twice due to the fact she was placed below property arrest — have stated they anticipate the trial to wrap up by July 26.
Hearings will take location every single Monday.
Journalists are barred from proceedings in the particular court in the capital Naypyidaw, but an AFP reporter stated there was a heavy police presence outdoors.
“We are hoping for the best but prepared for the worst,” Khin Maung Zaw, one of Suu Kyi’s lawyers, told AFP ahead of the hearing.
A separate trial is scheduled to commence on June 15 more than sedition charges she faces alongside ousted president Win Myint and a further 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 Coordinator 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.”
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Suu Kyi spent more than 15 years below property arrest for the duration of the earlier junta’s rule ahead of her 2010 release.
Her international reputation diminished following her defence of military-led violence against Myanmar’s marginalised Muslim Rohingya neighborhood.
But the coup has returned Suu Kyi to the part of cloistered democracy icon.
On Thursday, she was hit with further corruption charges more than claims she illegally accepted $600,000 in money and about 11 kilos of gold.
Her lawyer Khin Maung Zaw dismissed the new charges — which could see Suu Kyi hit with a further lengthy prison term — as “absurd”.
“There is an undeniable political background to keep her out of the scene of the country and to smear her prestige,” he told AFP last week.
“That’s one of the reasons to charge her — to keep her out of the scene.”
Myanmar has plunged into a “human rights catastrophe” due to the fact the coup, the UN rights chief Michelle Bachelet stated Friday, adding that the military leadership was “singularly responsible” for the crisis.
Bachelet also slammed the sweeping arrests of activists, journalists and opponents of the junta, citing credible sources saying at least 4,804 individuals stay in arbitrary detention.
Junta leader Min Aung Hlaing has justified his energy grab by citing alleged electoral fraud in the November poll won by Suu Kyi’s NLD.
The junta has previously stated it would hold fresh elections inside two years, but has also threatened to dissolve the NLD.
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