Myanmar opposition icon Aung San Suu Kyi went on trial amid tight security at a notorious prison yesterday, facing up to five more years in detention on charges of harboring a US man who swam to her home.
Dozens of supporters of the ailing Nobel Peace Prize laureate gathered near Insein prison outside Yangon as the hearing got under way, one of whom was arrested by the phalanx of riot police posted behind barbed wire blockades.
The ruling junta pushed ahead with the trial of the 63-year-old despite the threat of tougher sanctions from the EU over the charges against her, which allege that she violated the terms of her house arrest.
“We can definitely win according to the law. She didn’t do anything wrong,” Nyan Win, a spokesman for Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) party, said after the court was adjourned.
Lawyers for the pro-democracy leader opened the proceedings with an application for the trial to be held in open court, which the judges rejected, Nyan Win said.
The court then heard from the first of an expected 22 witnesses, police Colonel Zaw Min Aung, who filed the original complaint against the pro-democracy leader after the incident involving the US man, Nyan Win said.
He quoted the policeman as saying that Aung San Suu Kyi had “violated the personal restrictions on her” by having contact with John Yettaw, the man who swam across a lake to her home earlier this month.
Aung San Suu Kyi did not speak during the hearing, he said.
But she was “alert and wanted to tell friends that she is in good health,” he said.
Her latest six-year period of detention was due to expire next Wednesday, but Yettaw’s visit has apparently provided the junta with the ammunition they need to extend her detention past next year’s polls.
Yettaw, 53, reportedly described as a harmless eccentric by relatives in the US, also appeared at the trial along with two aides of Aung San Suu Kyi. A US consular official attended the hearing, Nyan Win said.
Security forces barred the ambassadors of Britain, France, Germany and Italy from the jail as they attempted to gain entry to the court, a Western diplomat said.
Aung San Suu Kyi’s lawyer, Kyi Win, said that she would protest her innocence.
“She just felt sorry for this man [Yettaw] as he had leg cramps after he swam across the lake. That’s why she allowed him to stay,” Kyi Win said.
Several dozen NLD members gathered outside the security cordon at the jail, including Win Tin, who was Myanmar’s longest serving political prisoner until his release in September, witnesses said.
The EU said yesterday it would consider boosting its sanctions against the Myanmar regime because of the trial.
The combined effect of the monsoon, the outer rim of Typhoon Fengshen and a low-pressure system is expected to bring significant rainfall this week to various parts of the nation, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The heaviest rain is expected to occur today and tomorrow, with torrential rain expected in Keelung’s north coast, Yilan and the mountainous regions of Taipei and New Taipei City, the CWA said. Rivers could rise rapidly, and residents should stay away from riverbanks and avoid going to the mountains or engaging in water activities, it said. Scattered showers are expected today in central and
COOPERATION: Taiwan is aligning closely with US strategic objectives on various matters, including China’s rare earths restrictions, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Taiwan could deal with China’s tightened export controls on rare earth metals by turning to “urban mining,” a researcher said yesterday. Rare earth metals, which are used in semiconductors and other electronic components, could be recovered from industrial or electronic waste to reduce reliance on imports, National Cheng Kung University Department of Resources Engineering professor Lee Cheng-han (李政翰) said. Despite their name, rare earth elements are not actually rare — their abundance in the Earth’s crust is relatively high, but they are dispersed, making extraction and refining energy-intensive and environmentally damaging, he said, adding that many countries have opted to
SUPPLY CHAIN: Taiwan’s advantages in the drone industry include rapid production capacity that is independent of Chinese-made parts, the economic ministry said The Executive Yuan yesterday approved plans to invest NT$44.2 billion (US$1.44 billion) into domestic production of uncrewed aerial vehicles over the next six years, bringing Taiwan’s output value to more than NT$40 billion by 2030 and making the nation Asia’s democratic hub for the drone supply chain. The proposed budget has NT$33.8 billion in new allocations and NT$10.43 billion in existing funds, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said. Under the new development program, the public sector would purchase nearly 100,000 drones, of which 50,898 would be for civil and government use, while 48,750 would be for national defense, it said. The Ministry of
UNITED: The other candidates congratulated Cheng on her win, saying they hoped the new chair could bring the party to victory in the elections next year and in 2028 Former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmaker Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) yesterday won the party’s chair election with 65,122 votes, or 50.15 percent of the votes. It was the first time Cheng, 55, ran for the top KMT post, and she is the second woman to hold the post of chair, following Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱), who served from 2016 to 2017. Cheng is to succeed incumbent Eric Chu (朱立倫) on Nov. 1 for a four-year term. Cheng said she has spoken with the other five candidates and pledged to maintain party unity, adding that the party would aim to win the elections next year and
RSS