Bangkok, Sept. 13, (dpa/GNA) – Myanmar’s ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi was unable to attend the first day of her trial in the capital Naypyidaw on Monday due to ill heath, according to her lawyers.
The 76-year-old Nobel Prize laureate, who has been under house arrest since a military coup in Myanmar earlier this year, was finally due to appear in court Monday after months of delays due to the coronavirus situation.
Suu Kyi met with her legal team on Monday morning, but was not feeling well enough to attend the hearing, asking her lawyers to apply to the court for a leave of absence on health grounds.
“She seemed to be ill, sneezed and said she was drowsy. Therefore the lawyers talked only briefly with her,” the head of Suu Kyi’s legal team, Khin Maung Zaw, told dpa, adding later after the court hearing that she had also complained of being dizzy, having a swollen nose and being unable to sit down at all.
Suu Kyi is accused of a range of offences, including violations of a state secrets law, foreign trading laws and breaking coronavirus regulations. The charges are widely seen as trumped up and as being aimed at silencing Myanmar’s veteran pro-democracy campaigner, who has long been a thorn in the side of the ruling military junta.
The military justified seizing power by alleging widespread voter fraud during a general election in November, which saw a landslide win for Suu Kyi’s National League of Democracy. It did not provide direct evidence for the claim. Independent election observers in the country had at the time pronounced the election free and fair overall.
According to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners monitoring group, at least 1,080 people have been killed in Myanmar since the coup in February, and more than 8,000 people have been imprisoned.
GNA