Detained Aung San Suu Kyi faces charges
Myanmar police have charged Aung San Suu Kyi with possession of illegally-imported walkie-talkies, which could result in a two-year prison sentence.
A document from a police station in the capital said military officers who searched Aung San Suu Kyi’s residence had found handheld radios that were imported illegally and used without permission by her bodyguards. The charges, confirmed by members of her party, appear to carry a maximum prison sentence of two years.
The policy document contains accusations- called a First Initial Report – submitted to a court.
the document says; She remanded in custody “to question witnesses, request evidence and seeks legal counsel after questioning the defendant”
The ousted president, Win Myint, is meanwhile to be charged for allegedly breaching coronavirus laws; by meeting people on the campaign trail.
A state newspaper also reported that the new military government would investigate what it has described as a fraud in November’s election, in which its proxy party was heavily defeated by Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD).
The moves are likely to fuel already simmering anger towards the military.
In one of the first organized acts of defiance against the army since Monday’s coup; health workers in 70 hospitals and medical departments in Naypyidaw, Yangon, and other towns and cities said they would not work under the military regime, accusing the generals of placing their own priorities above those of ordinary people during the pandemic.
“We refuse to obey any order from the illegitimate military regime who demonstrated they do not have any regards for our poor patients,” the organizers said.
Suu Kyi and former President Win Myint were arrested in pre-dawn raids Monday hours before the military declared that power had been handed to the commander in chief Min Aung Hlaing over unfounded allegations of election fraud.
Numerous senior lawmakers and officials in the ruling National League for Democracy Party (NLD) were also detained; with some 400 kept at a guest house in the capital.
The army has claimed the coup is in line with the country’s constitution. The army chief, Min Aung Hlaing, now head of a new cabinet, on Tuesday defended the military’s action as “inevitable”. Civilian leaders, he said, had not listened to the army’s complaints of voter fraud.
Suu Kyi’s party, the NLD claimed an overwhelming victory in the November 2020 elections; only the second since the end of military rule; taking 83% of the vote; which granted it another five years in government.
The country’s election commission has repeatedly denied mass voter fraud took place.
