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Myanmar police have pressed charges against the ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been detained until February 15.
Ms. Suu Kyi, who was arrested Monday as Myanmar’s army staged a coup, is accused of violating the country’s import and export laws.
A police document claims that four illegally imported portable radios were discovered during a search of Ms Suu Kyi’s home in the capital Naypyidaw, Reuters news agency reports.
He adds that in addition to being illegally imported, the walkie-talkies had been used without permission.
Listing the reasons for detaining the 75-year-old Nobel laureate, the document says the police plan to “question witnesses, request evidence and seek legal advice after questioning the accused.”
Police have also brought charges against ousted President Win Myint, according to a separate document that says the crimes are subject to the country’s Disaster Management Act.
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Pans were banged and car horns sounded in protest against the military coup
Myanmar’s military maintains that the coup is in response to “electoral fraud” in the vote last November, despite pleas from across the country to respect the result.
Staff from 70 hospitals and medical departments in 30 cities have joined forces to attack and create the Myanmar Civil Disobedience Movement, rejecting the action.
It says the military has put its own interests above a vulnerable population during the coronavirus pandemic that has killed more than 3,100 people.
“We refused to obey any order from the illegitimate military regime that proved to have no respect for our poor patients,” the group said.
The international response has also been the subject of widespread condemnation, with the Foreign Ministers of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States, and the High Representative of the European Union issuing a joint statement demanding that the military “immediately put an end to the state of emergency, restore power to the democratically elected government, release all those unjustly detained, and respect human rights and the rule of law.”
US President Joe Biden has gone further and threatened new sanctions after they were removed in the last decade due to progress toward democracy.
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In the country’s largest city, Yangon, citizens beat pots and honked car horns in a campaign of civil disobedience.
Boris Johnson summoned the Myanmar ambassador to London and has insisted that the election result “must be respected and civilian leaders must be released.”
Hundreds of members of parliament are currently confined within their government houses in Naypyidaw, while power has been handed over to military chief Min Aung Hlaing.
The army says it will impose a state of emergency for a year, a measure of unrest that the UN fears will worsen the plight of some 600,000 Rohingya Muslims still in the country.
