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YANGON: Myanmar’s ousted civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi is facing new charges of corruption from the ruling junta that her lawyer said on Thursday (March 18) were “unfounded” but could assure she could never return to law. politics.
The February 1 coup that toppled the government of Aung San Suu Kyi has brought hundreds of thousands to the streets to confront the generals, who have responded with a brutal crackdown that has left at least 200 dead.
The new military regime has already issued several criminal charges against the Nobel laureate since she was detained along with top political allies, including possessing walkie-talkies without a license and violating coronavirus restrictions.
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On Wednesday night, military broadcaster Myawady broadcast a video of a Myanmar businessman confessing to giving him a total of $ 550,000 over several years.
Maung Weik said that he had donated money to high-level government figures for the good of his business.
“Aung San Suu Kyi committed corruption and (the authorities) are preparing to charge her in accordance with the anti-corruption law,” an announcer said during the broadcast.
This is not the first time that corruption allegations have been brought against him.
Last week, a board spokesman said a now-detained prime minister had admitted to giving him $ 600,000 and more than 10 kilograms of gold bullion.
“These allegations are unfounded,” Aung San Suu Kyi’s lawyer Khin Maung Zaw told AFP.
“Aung San Suu Kyi may have her flaws … but bribery and corruption are not her traits,” he said, adding that most people in Myanmar will not believe the accusations.
However, a bribery conviction in a case against his “personal character” could render Aung San Suu Kyi “unable to participate in political activities,” Zaw told AFP.
READ: Myanmar Buddhist group signals break with authorities after violent crackdown
NIGHT OF TERROR
Soldiers and police terrorized several battle-ravaged Yangon neighborhoods on Wednesday night, when a mobile data blackout combined with an internet shutdown pushed frightened residents into an information blackout.
“Security forces threatened to shoot” residents if they did not remove the barricades that protesters have built in the commercial capital while fighting authorities, according to a doctor from the southern Okkalapa municipality.
They also raided homes and arrested at least 10 people, he told AFP.
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In neighboring Thingangyun Township, a man said he had heard continuous gunshots for 30 minutes before midnight, adding that he had put cotton swabs in his two sons’ ears so they could fall asleep.
Even shopping for food has become a ordeal, he said, as residents were forced to move quickly through the streets to avoid encountering trigger-happy security forces patrols.
“It makes me sad and angry too … it’s like all our dreams (of democracy) have faded,” he said.
But “our hatred (of a military regime) is much more than our fear.”
Protesters returned to the streets on Thursday, with some in Yangon testing a giant slingshot to fire projectiles.
PEOPLE CAUGHT IN CROSS FIRE
Sunday was the bloodiest day since the coup, and the monitoring group of the Association for Assistance to Political Prisoners (AAPP) recorded more than 70 deaths across the country.
Most of the death toll occurred in Yangon’s Hlaing Tharyar, an impoverished clothing-producing municipality that is home to mostly Chinese-owned factories, and the junta later imposed martial law in the area.
READ: UN investigators seek evidence of criminal warrants from Myanmar’s junta
Five other municipalities were also placed under martial law on Monday, effectively putting nearly 2 million of Yangon’s sprawling population under the direct control of military commanders.
Any arrests made there will be tried in military courts.
Despite massive international condemnation, the junta continues to rack up a growing death toll, with the AAPP reporting Thursday that more than 210 people have died so far.
The junta has justified the coup by alleging electoral fraud in last November’s elections that were overwhelmingly won by Aung San Suu Kyi’s party.
