Myanmar leader appears in court, faces new charges

Myanmar’s deposed leader, Aung San Suu Kyi has appeared in a court hearing via video link and was hit with additional charges, as anti-coup protesters rallied across the country again in defiance of a security force crackdown that killed at least 18 people the previous day.

The 75-year-old looked healthy as she took part in the court hearing on Monday from the capital, Naypyidaw, and asked to see her legal team.

The leader of the National League for Democracy (NLD), which swept last November’s now-annulled election, has not been seen in public since her detention on February 1 when the military seized power, alleging widespread electoral fraud.

Shortly afterwards, she was charged with illegally importing six walkie-talkie radios as well as violating a natural disaster law by staging a campaign rally during the coronavirus pandemic.

A third charge, filed on Monday, was under a section of the colonial-era penal code prohibiting the publication of information that may “cause fear or alarm” or disrupt “public tranquility”, her lawyer, Min Min Soe said.

Another charge was also added under a telecommunications law, the lawyer said, which stipulates that equipment needs a licence.

The next hearing will be on March 15.

Khin Maung Zaw, a second lawyer for the deposed leader, said her legal team had not been able to speak to her ahead of the hearing.

Myanmar has been in chaos since the February 1 coup, which brought a halt to the country’s tentative steps towards democracy after nearly 50 years of military rule.

It has drawn widespread international condemnation and hundreds of thousands of demonstrators onto the streets of cities and towns across Myanmar.

As Aung San Suu Kyi appeared in court, police in Yangon fired tear gas and stun grenades to disperse protesters gathered at multiple locations throughout the city.

Many of the protesters wore hard hats, while those at the front lines carried makeshift shields to protect themselves from security forces, who killed at least four people in Yangon and wounded dozens more the previous day.

In the city’s Kyauktada township, one protester was seen blacking out security cameras, while in other parts of Yangon, demonstrators taped to the ground hundreds of pictures of Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, bearing the words: “Shame on you, dictator, we will never forgive you.”

Crowds also marched in the second city of Mandalay, while live video on Facebook showed a small crowd of protesters gathered across a street in Lashio, Shan State, chanting slogans as police marched towards them.

The new rallies came a day after the worst violence since the coup.

Clashes took place in various parts of the country on Sunday, as police opened fire on crowds in Yangon, Mandalay, Dawei and other places after tear gas and warning shots failed to clear protesters demanding the restoration of Aung San Suu Kyi’s government.

Some of the security forces belonged to units notorious for tough crackdowns on ethnic rebel groups.

The United Nations said it had “credible information” that at least 18 people were killed and 30 were wounded around Myanmar. Counts made by other sources, such the Democratic Voice of Burma, an independent television and online news outlet, put the death toll in the 20s.

Any of those reports would make it the highest single-day death toll since the military takeover.

Following the killings, people erected makeshift sidewalk shrines at the spots where several of the victims were shot and also paid their respects by standing outside the hospitals from which the bodies of the victims were being released to their families.

The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners said at least 270 people had been detained on Sunday, from a total of 1,132 it said had been arrested, charged or sentenced since the coup.

Those arrested included one journalist who was beaten in northern Myitkyina, Kachin State, according to local outlet The 74 Media.

Several journalists documenting assaults by security forces on Saturday were also detained, including Thein Zaw, an Associated Press photographer in Yangon.

In a long statement published on Monday in the state-run Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper, Myanmar’s Foreign Ministry restated the military’s rationale for its takeover and declared that the junta “is exercising utmost restraint to avoid the use of force in managing the violent protests systematically, in accordance with domestic and international laws in order to keep minimum casualties”.

The United States has led global condemnation of Myanmar’s military rulers, imposing limited sanctions on its generals.

Tom Andrews, the United Nations special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar said it was clear the military’s assault on protesters would continue so the international community should ratchet up its response.

He proposed a global arms embargo, more sanctions from more countries on those behind the coup, sanctions on the military’s businesses and a UN Security Council referral to the International Criminal Court.

Aljazeera