Myanmar police have filed charges against ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi for illegally importing communications equipment and she will be detained until 15 February for investigations, according to a police document seen by Reuters.
Myanmar’s army seized power on Monday, detaining Nobel laureate Ms Suu Kyi and cutting short a transition to democracy in a takeover that has drawn condemnation from the United States and other Western countries.
A police request to a court detailing the accusations against 75-year-old Nobel laureate Ms Suu Kyi said walkie-talkie radios had been found in a search of her home in the capital, Naypyidaw. It said the radios were imported illegally and used without permission.
The document reviewed on Wednesday requested Ms Suu Kyi’s detention “in order to question witnesses, request evidence and seek legal counsel after questioning the defendant”.
A separate document showed police filed charges against ousted President Win Myint for offences under the Disaster Management Law.
Reuters was not immediately able to reach the police, the government or the court for comment.
A spokesperson for Ms Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) party said she had been charged with breaching an import and export law.
“We have got reliable information that Dakhinathiri court has given a 14-day remand from February 1 to February 15 against Daw Aung San Suu Kyi under the charge of violating the import/export law,” Kyi Toe, NLD press officer, wrote on his official Facebook page.
Ms Suu Kyi endured about 15 years of house arrest between 1989 and 2010 as she led the country’s democracy movement and she remains hugely popular at home despite damage to her international reputation over the flight of Muslim Rohingya refugees in 2017.
Her National League for Democracy (NLD) party said earlier in a statement that its offices had been raided in several regions and urged authorities to stop what it called unlawful acts after its victory in an 8 November election.
Army chief Min Aung Hlaing seized power on the grounds of fraud in the election, which the NLD won in a landslide. The electoral commission had said the vote it was fair.
The Group of Seven largest developed economies condemned the coup on Wednesday and said the election result must be respected.
“We, the G7 Foreign Ministers of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States of America and the High Representative of the European Union, are united in condemning the coup in Myanmar,” they said in a statement.
Soldiers stand guard along a blockaded road near Myanmar’s parliament in Naypyidaw on 2 February.
AFP via Getty Images
“We are deeply concerned by the detention of political leaders and civil society activists, including State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi and President Win Myint, and targeting of the media.
The G7 foreign ministers called on the military to end the state of emergency and allow unrestricted humanitarian access to support the most vulnerable.
“We call upon the military to immediately end the state of emergency, restore power to the democratically-elected government, to release all those unjustly detained and to respect human rights and the rule of law,” the G7 said in a statement.
