Yangon:
The Myanmar junta has hit deposed civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi with corruption charges more than claims she accepted illegal payments of gold and more than half a million dollars in money, state media reported Thursday.
The nation has been in turmoil given that the generals ousted Suu Kyi on February 1, with almost 850 civilians killed in a brutal crackdown by safety forces on close to-each day protests against the coup.
The 75-year-old Nobel laureate, who has been in custody given that the coup, is facing a raft of wide-ranging criminal charges, such as sedition and breaching a colonial-era secrecy law.
The most up-to-date charges relate to allegations by the former Yangon area chief minister that Suu Kyi illegally accepted $600,000 in money from him along with about 11 kilograms of gold.
The Anti-Corruption Commission identified proof that Suu Kyi had committed “corruption using her rank”, according to the Global New Light of Myanmar, a state-run newspaper.
“So she was charged under Anti-Corruption Law section 55.”
She is also accused of abusing her authority when renting two locations of land for her charitable foundation.
After weeks of legal wrangling, two of Suu Kyi’s trials are due to get started in earnest next week, hearing proof from witnesses.
In Naypyidaw, the remote capital objective constructed by the prior military regime, her trial will get started on Monday on charges of violating restrictions for the duration of last year’s election campaign and possessing unlicensed walkie-talkies.
A separate case is scheduled to get started on June 15, exactly where she is charged with sedition alongside ousted president Win Myint and one more senior member of her National League for Democracy (NLD) party.
Charges ‘Absurd’
Her lawyer, Khin Maung Zaw, dismissed the corruption charges 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, saying she could face extended prison terms on the secrecy and corruption charges.
“That’s one of the reasons to charge her — to keep her out of the scene.”
Suu Kyi spent more than 15 years below property arrest for the duration of the prior military rule just before her 2010 release.
Her international stature diminished following a wave of military violence targeting Buddhist-majority Myanmar’s marginalised Muslim Rohingya neighborhood that displaced more than a million individuals, but the coup has returned Suu Kyi to the part of cloistered democracy icon.
The junta has previously mentioned it would hold fresh elections inside two years but has also threatened to dissolve the NLD.
“That election — I cannot say if it will materialise or not, and maybe NLD will not be able to compete,” Suu Kyi’s lawyer Khin Maung Zaw told AFP.
“But for Aung San Suu Kyi, if she is convicted under these charges she will not be allowed to compete.”
Junta leader Min Aung Hlaing has justified his energy grab by citing alleged electoral fraud in the November poll, which Suu Kyi’s NLD won in a landslide.
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