Court hearings for fresh corruption charges against Suu Kyi to begin next month 

Detained leader Aung San Suu Kyi will begin weekly court hearings for four corruption charges against her on October 1, her lawyers have said. 

The new charges, filed at the Mandalay Regional High Court, are the latest in a series of 11 offences the ousted State Counsellor has been accused of by the junta since her detention on February 1. 

“The judge from the high court is coming to hear her case,” said Khin Maung Zaw, who heads Suu Kyi’s defence team. 

Two of the corruption charges concern Suu Kyi alone, another involves two ministers from her government, and the fourth involves two members of the Naypyitaw council who served under the National League for Democracy (NLD), he added.

The defence lawyers suggested the charges may relate to land ownership issues at the Daw Khin Kyi Foundation, a charity Suu Kyi founded in the name of her mother. But they cautioned that they had been unable to read the case files yet. 

Suu Kyi has also been accused of illegally importing walkie talkies, of breaking Covid-19 regulations, and of incitement, among other things. She faces a potential decades-long sentence.  One charge of breaching the Official Secrets Act carries a 14-year prison sentence alone. 

Suu Kyi’s Australian economic advisor, Sean Turnell, has also been named in that case, as have Kyaw Win, who served as the NLD’s finance minister, his successor, Soe Win, and deputy minister Set Aung.

The military has also filed a separate corruption case against Suu Kyi at the Yangon Regional High Court, but no detailed information on that case has been revealed and lawyers think it may be transferred to Naypyitaw. 

“I heard they were going to hold a special court in Naypyitaw for all the cases from regional,” said Min Min Soe, another of Suu Kyi’s lawyers.