Myanmar’s popular leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been in custody since the country’s military seized power in a coup on February 1, has been charged with a new crime: that of violating the country’s national disaster management law.
It is a proof, if any were needed, of the extent to which the country’s military leaders are willing to subvert the Covid-19 crisis to their own ends.
The new charge carries a maximum three-year prison sentence. But an amendment to Myanmar’s penal code instituted by the junta on February 14 permits the army to detain people without having to go to court.
Aung San Suu Kyi was arrested on February 1 along with other members of the National League for Democracy government which had been re-elected in a landslide in December. She was charged with possession of illegally imported walkie-talkies. But the decision to level this additional charge of breaching Covid-19 restrictions is consistent with the way the military has used the…
