Two Myanmar military generals tried to force President Win Myint to resign as the coup unfolded on February 1 and said “harm” would come to him after he refused the request, the ousted leader told a court in Naypyitaw on Tuesday.
The generals, who Win Myint did not name in his testimony, came to the presidential residence in the capital in the early hours of the morning as the civilian leadership was rounded up across the country and told him to resign on the grounds of ill health, he told the court.
“The president turned down their proposal, saying he was in good health,” said a lawyer for the defence, who did not want to be named. “The officers warned him the denial would cause him much harm but he told them he would rather die than consent.”
The president told the generals that they should handle things in accordance with the law and should not stage a coup, the lawyer added.
The revelation came as Win Myint, 69, took the stand to defend himself against an incitement charge at the court in Zabuthiri Township.
Judge Maung Maung Lwin indicted Win Myint under Section 505b of the Penal Code in late September, along with detained State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi and detained Naypyitaw Mayor Myo Aung.
The charges were based on statements released by the National League for Democracy (NLD) party on February 7 and 13 denouncing the junta that had forced it from power and calling on the public to resist.
Win Myint told the court that he had no connection to the NLD’s statements as he had been in detention since February 1, his lawyer said.
The president then said that “the accusations against him were groundless as he had been held incommunicado, so the alleged statements were released without his knowledge,” the lawyer told Myanmar Now.
After Win Myint and Suu Kyi were detained, first vice president Myint Swe, a former lieutenant general, became acting president and then declared a state of emergency while transferring power to military chief Min Aung Hlaing.
The junta then charged the two civilian leaders with several offences that carry a combined sentence of decades in prison.
At Tuesday’s hearing Win Myint was also questioned by the junta’s public prosecutor, who asked him whether he knew about the Committee Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw, a group formed by ousted lawmakers to challenge the junta’s legitimacy.
The prosecutor also asked the president about his knowledge of the underground National Unity Government and the People’s Defence Force (PDF) it has established.
Win Myint’s lawyers objected to the questioning, saying it was irrelevant because the organisations were formed after Win Myint was arrested and he has not had a chance to learn anything about them.
The junta’s prosecutor also asked if Win Myint knew about the alleged “atrocities” committed by the PDF, a reference to junta claims that resistance fighters have carried out acts of terrorism. Win Myint’s lawyers objected to the question and said it was irrelevant.
Also on Tuesday, the court heard a second charge against Suu Kyi under the Disaster Management Law, which was filed by a civilian. The judge said he would announce whether or not he was indicting her under that charge at the next hearing.
On Monday the judge indicted Suu Kyi and Win Myint under the same law for alleged breaches of Covid-19 restrictions during last year’s election campaign.
The next hearing for both cases is scheduled for 26 October, after the Thadingyut holiday, the defence team for both leaders said.
The ASEAN special envoy to Myanmar, Erywan Yusof, delayed a planned visit to the country after the junta denied his request to meet with Suu Kyi and Win Myint.
