The trial of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi was adjourned yesterday for two weeks so that defense lawyers can call an additional witness to testify in the widely watched case, a Myanmar official said.
The District Court trying Suu Kyi informed lawyers of the postponement until June 26 during a brief hearing yesterday at Insein Prison, where the trial is taking place, said the government official who is close to the court. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to media.
No new date has been set for closing arguments, which were originally set for June 1 and delayed repeatedly since then.
Yesterday’s postponement was expected after Suu Kyi’s lawyers won an appeal earlier this week to reinstate one defense witness — Khin Moe Moe, a lawyer and member of the Nobel laureate’s opposition party.
The lawyers have filed a second appeal with the High Court to bring back two other witnesses barred by the lower court presiding over her trial. If accepted, that appeal could prompt more delays.
The District Court trying Suu Kyi had initially barred the three defense witnesses — leaving Suu Kyi with a sole witness.
Suu Kyi is charged with violating the terms of her house arrest because an uninvited American man swam secretly to her closely guarded lakeside home last month and stayed two days.
If convicted, she faces up to five years in prison.
The hearing has drawn outrage from the international community and Suu Kyi’s local supporters, who say the military government is using the bizarre incident as an excuse to keep the pro-democracy leader detained through next year’s elections.
The 63-year-old Suu Kyi told her lawyers she believes the case against her is “politically motivated” but that it wouldn’t stop her from continuing her fight for democracy, Nyan Win, one of her lawyers, said on Thursday.
“She said she is engaged in politics due to her political belief and commitment,” Nyan Win said. “She would not be doing politics if she were afraid of the consequences.”
It is widely expected that Suu Kyi will be found guilty because courts in Myanmar are known for handing out harsh sentences to political dissidents.
Suu Kyi’s party won the country’s last elections in 1990 but was not allowed to take power by the military, which has run the country since 1962.
The Burmese junta has said that detained former leader Aung San Suu Kyi is “in good health,” a day after her son said he has received little information about the 80-year-old’s condition and fears she could die without him knowing. In an interview in Tokyo earlier this week, Kim Aris said he had not heard from his mother in years and believes she is being held incommunicado in the capital, Naypyidaw. Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, was detained after a 2021 military coup that ousted her elected civilian government and sparked a civil war. She is serving a
China yesterday held a low-key memorial ceremony for the 1937 Nanjing Massacre, with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) not attending, despite a diplomatic crisis between Beijing and Tokyo over Taiwan. Beijing has raged at Tokyo since Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi last month said that a hypothetical Chinese attack on Taiwan could trigger a military response from Japan. China and Japan have long sparred over their painful history. China consistently reminds its people of the 1937 Nanjing Massacre, in which it says Japanese troops killed 300,000 people in what was then its capital. A post-World War II Allied tribunal put the death toll
‘NO AMNESTY’: Tens of thousands of people joined the rally against a bill that would slash the former president’s prison term; President Lula has said he would veto the bill Tens of thousands of Brazilians on Sunday demonstrated against a bill that advanced in Congress this week that would reduce the time former president Jair Bolsonaro spends behind bars following his sentence of more than 27 years for attempting a coup. Protests took place in the capital, Brasilia, and in other major cities across the nation, including Sao Paulo, Florianopolis, Salvador and Recife. On Copacabana’s boardwalk in Rio de Janeiro, crowds composed of left-wing voters chanted “No amnesty” and “Out with Hugo Motta,” a reference to the speaker of the lower house, which approved the bill on Wednesday last week. It is
FALLEN: The nine soldiers who were killed while carrying out combat and engineering tasks in Russia were given the title of Hero of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea North Korean leader Kim Jong-un attended a welcoming ceremony for an army engineering unit that had returned home after carrying out duties in Russia, North Korean state media KCNA reported on Saturday. In a speech carried by KCNA, Kim praised officers and soldiers of the 528th Regiment of Engineers of the Korean People’s Army (KPA) for “heroic” conduct and “mass heroism” in fulfilling orders issued by the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea during a 120-day overseas deployment. Video footage released by North Korea showed uniformed soldiers disembarking from an aircraft, Kim hugging a soldier seated in a wheelchair, and soldiers and officials
RSS