The ousted leader’s supporters say the proceedings are meant to discredit her and legitimize the military’s seizure of power.
BANGKOK — Myanmar’s ousted leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, appeared in court in person on Monday for the first time since the military arrested her when it seized power on Feb.1. Myanmar state television MRTV broadcast on its evening news program the first photo of Suu Kyi,75, since the coup. It showed her sitting straight-backed in a small courtroom, wearing a pink face-mask, her hands folded in her lap. Alongside her were her two co-defendants, former President Win Myint and Myo Aung, the former mayor of Naypyitaw, Myanmar’s capital. One of their lawyers, Min Soe, told The Associated Press by phone that the three were able to meet with their defense team for about 30 minutes before the hearing began at a special court set up inside Naypyitaw’s city council building. Suu Kyi’s only previous court appearances have been by video link and she had not been allowed to meet in person with any of her lawyers. Min Soe said Suu Kyi wanted to tell Myanmar’s people that her National League for Democracy party will stand by them. She said that “since the NLD was founded for the people, the NLD will exist as long as the people exist,” Min Soe said after the hearing. She appeared to be referring to the ruling junta’s threat to dissolve the party. U.N. special envoy for Myanmar, Christine Schraner Burgener, called the military’s attempt to ban the NLD “unacceptable.” “I also hope the NLD will survive because this is the will of the people,” she told a virtual press conference at U.N. headquarters in New York, noting that the NLD received 82 percent of the vote in November’s election. Khin Maung Zaw, head of Suu Kyi’s legal team, said “she seems fit and alert and smart, as always.” “Daw Aung San Suu Kyi is always confident in herself, and she is confident in her cause and confident in the people,” he said, using an honorific for a respected older woman. Thein Hlaing Tun, a lawyer representing Myo Aung, was arrested after the hearing on a charge of spreading information that could cause unrest. Monday’s hearing was largely procedural.
