Myanmar's military government issued Aung San Suu Kyi a sixth corruption charge Tuesday involving former President Win Myint, plus a new witness is now allowed to testify, which delayed the trial verdict, the Associated Press reported.
In the new corruption charge, Suu Kyi and Myint are accused of violating the Anti-Corruption Law for allowing permits to rent and buy helicopters.
The court was supposed to announce a verdict on Tuesday relating to the charges of incitement and violating COVID restrictions but postponed to allow Zaw Myint Maung to testify in the trial after he had been unable to attend previously because of health reasons, a legal official said.
Maung, who also faces criminal charges, was the vice chairman of Suu Kyi's party. He joined Suu Kyi during the campaign for last year's election, and their attendance in Naypyitaw is the basis for the charge against violating COVID restrictions.
Suu Kyi was previously charged with five counts. She is currently being tried on four of the charges, and the fifth charge has a trial pending.
If she is found guilty, each charge carries up to a 15-year prison sentence plus a fine.
Suu Kyi's trials are closed to the media and spectators.
For more reporting from the Associated Press, see below.
In October, Suu Kyi's lawyers, who had been the sole source of information on the legal proceedings, were served with gag orders forbidding them from releasing information.
The verdict would have been the first for the 76-year-old Nobel laureate since the army seized power on February 1, arresting her and blocking her National League for Democracy party from starting a second term in office.
She also is being tried on a series of other charges, including corruption, that could send her to prison for dozens of years if convicted.
The judge adjourned the proceedings until December 6, when Zaw Myint Maung is scheduled to testify, said the legal official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the government has restricted the release of information about the trial. It was unclear when a verdict will be issued.
Maung, who was chief minister of the Mandalay region, a major state-level post, was also detained when the army took over. He is 69 years old and reportedly suffers from leukemia.
The cases are widely seen as contrived to discredit Suu Kyi and keep her from running in the next election. The constitution bars anyone sentenced to prison from holding high office or becoming a lawmaker.
Suu Kyi's party won a landslide victory in last year's polls. The army, whose allied party lost many seats, claimed there was massive voting fraud, but independent election observers did not detect any major irregularities.
Suu Kyi remains widely popular and a symbol of the struggle against military rule.
The army's takeover was met by nationwide nonviolent demonstrations which security forces quashed with deadly force, killing nearly 1,300 civilians, according to a tally by the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners.
With severe restrictions on nonviolent protest, armed resistance has grown in the cities and the countryside to the point where U.N. experts have warned the country is sliding into civil war.
Suu Kyi, who received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 for her nonviolent struggle for democracy, has not been seen in public since being taken into custody on the day of the military's takeover. She has appeared in court at several of her trials, which are closed to the media and spectators.
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