Fifteen other officials, including former President Win Myint, also arrested during the celebration of February 1, will be continued for the same offense.
Le Monde with AFP
The Burmese junta still tightens its judicial vice around Aung San Suu Kyi. The generals charge the laureate of the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize, reversed in February, for “electoral fraud” during the legislative of 2020, reported the Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper, controlled by the plan, without giving more details, Tuesday November 16th.
Fifteen other officials, including former President Win Myint, also arrested during the coup of the 1 February, will be continued for the same offense.
The junta justifies its passage in force by ensuring discovery more than 11 million irregularities in the November 2020 elections, won hands up by the National League for Democracy (LND), the party of Aung San Suu Kyi. But no one had been charged for it so far. At the time, international observers had described this “globally free and equitable” ballot.
New elections by August 2023
The leader of the junta, Min Aung Hlaing, threatened to dissolve the LND, the main opposition force in Burma. He assured that new elections would be organized by August 2023.
“The junta uses fallacious electoral fraud allegations to justify his coup,” said France-Press Richard Horsey, Analyst at the International Crisis Group. “Aung San Suu Kyi and his party benefited from overwhelming support from voters, guilty verdicts will not convince anyone.”
This new charge of the former leader, assigned to residence for more than nine months, intervenes in the aftermath of the liberation of the American journalist Danny Fenster, pardon after more than six months of detention on the eve of a trial where he Risk a sentenced conviction for terrorism. It was expelled to the United States.
Aung San Suu Kyi, 76, is judged since June for a multitude of offenses – illegal importation of talkies, sedition, corruption, incentive to public disorders … She is also accused of breaking the rules of restrictions against CIVID-19. A first verdict is expected on December 14th in this component of the case. It risks long years in prison if it is convicted. At the end of October, Win Htein, one of his close 80-year-old collaborators, was sentenced to twenty years of detention for betrayal.
Press muzzled by the junta h2>
The media are not allowed to attend the closed doors of Aung San Suu Kyi in front of a special tribunal of Naypyidaw, the capital. The Junta also forbids his legal team to speak to the press and international organizations.
The February putsch ended a democratic transition started ten years ago. Since then, the military has been leading a bloody repression against their opponents: more than 1,250 civilians have been killed and nearly 7,300 people are in detention, according to a local NGO, the Assistance of Assistance to Political Prisoners. She reported cases of torture, rape and extrajudicial executions.
The press is muzzled by the junta, which tries to strengthen its information control, limiting access to the Internet and canceling media licenses. More than one hundred journalists have been arrested in recent months, according to the Reporting Asean association. Thirty-one of them are still in detention.