BANGKOK (AP) — A court docket in Myanmar postponed its verdict on Tuesday within the trial of ousted chief Aung San Suu Kyi to permit testimony from a further witness, a senior member of her political get together.
The court docket agreed with a protection movement that it permit Zaw Myint Maung, who had beforehand been unable to come back to court docket for well being causes, so as to add his testimony, a authorized official mentioned.
The court docket had been scheduled to ship a verdict on Tuesday on prices of incitement and violating coronavirus restrictions.
The decision would have been the primary for the 76-year-old Nobel laureate for the reason that military seized energy on Feb. 1, arresting her and blocking her Nationwide League for Democracy get together from beginning a second time period in workplace.
READ MORE: Myanmar’s Suu Kyi to testify in personal protection later this month
She is also being tried on a sequence of different prices, together with corruption, that might ship her to jail for dozens of years if convicted.
The choose adjourned the proceedings till Dec. 6, when Zaw Myint Maung is scheduled to testify, mentioned the authorized official, who spoke on situation of anonymity as a result of the federal government has restricted the discharge of details about the trial. It was unclear when a verdict shall be issued.
The instances are extensively seen as contrived to discredit Suu Kyi and hold her from working within the subsequent election. The structure bars anybody sentenced to jail from holding excessive workplace or changing into a lawmaker.
Zaw Myint Maung, who was chief minister of the Mandalay area, a significant state-level submit, was additionally detained when the military took over. He’s vice chairman of Suu Kyi’s get together and a medical physician, and like her faces a number of felony prices, together with corruption. He’s 69 years previous and reportedly suffers from leukemia.
He accompanied Suu Kyi throughout campaigning for final yr’s election, together with in Naypyitaw, the place her presence was the premise for one of many prices of violating coronavirus restrictions.
READ MORE: U.N. envoy says ‘civil struggle’ has unfold all through Myanmar
Suu Kyi’s get together gained a landslide victory in final yr’s polls. The military, whose allied get together misplaced many seats, claimed there was huge voting fraud, however unbiased election observers didn’t detect any main irregularities.
Suu Kyi stays extensively common and a logo of the battle in opposition to army rule.
The military’s takeover was met by nationwide nonviolent demonstrations which safety forces quashed with lethal drive, killing almost 1,300 civilians, in keeping with a tally by the Help Affiliation for Political Prisoners.
With extreme restrictions on nonviolent protest, armed resistance has grown within the cities and the countryside to the purpose the place U.N. specialists have warned the nation is sliding into civil struggle.
Suu Kyi, who obtained the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 for her nonviolent battle for democracy, has not been seen in public since being taken into custody on the day of the army’s takeover. She has appeared in court docket at a number of of her trials, that are closed to the media and spectators.
In October, Suu Kyi’s attorneys, who had been the only supply of data on the authorized proceedings, have been served with gag orders forbidding them from releasing data.
