DM Monitoring
NAYPYIDAW: Myanmar’s ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi appeared in court in person Monday for the first time since the military arrested her when it seized power on Feb. 1, Myanmar media reported.
One of her lawyers, Min Min Soe, said by phone that Suu Kyi was able to meet with her defense team before her hearing began at a special court set up inside the city council building in Naypyitaw, the capital. The hearing’s purpose was procedural.
The lawyers also met with Win Myint, who was president in the government that Suu Kyi led as state counsellor, and a defendant on some of the same charges she faces. Suu Kyi had been charged with several criminal offenses, but her only previous court appearances had been by video link, and she had not been allowed to meet in person with any of her lawyers.
Min Min Soe said Suu Kyi had a message for Myanmar’s people to the effect that her National League for Democracy party would stand by them. “The main thing (she said) is that she always wishes good health and well-being for all the people, and she also said that since the NLD was founded for the people,” said Min Min Soe after the hearing.
