Myanmar court sets October 1 for Suu Kyi corruption trial

A trial of Myanmar’s ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi on corruption charges is set to begin on October 1, a member of her legal team said Friday. Lawyer Khin Maung Zaw said a judge declared the trial would be held at the Special Court in the capital Naypyitaw on every other Friday. He announced the decision after presentations in the court by Suu Kyi’s lawyers and prosecutors from the central city of Mandalay, where the charges were originally lodged.

Suu Kyi has been under house arrest since she and her elected government were deposed by the military in a February coup that sparked a mass uprising and a brutal crackdown on dissent. The 76-year-old Nobel laureate is currently on trial for flouting coronavirus restrictions during polls her party won in a landslide last year. In the ongoing trial, she faces charges of sedition, two counts of flouting Covid-19 pandemic restrictions, illegally importing walkie-talkies that were for her bodyguards’ use and the unlicensed use of the radios. She will face a new trial on four charges of corruption. Each corruption charge carries a maximum sentence of 15 years. The ongoing trials were delayed for two months as Myanmar grappled with a coronavirus surge and only resumed this week, with Suu Kyi skipping the first day on health grounds. Journalists have been barred from all proceedings so far. The junta has also charged her for accepting illegal payments of gold and violating a colonial-era secrecy law, although these are yet to come to court.