The head lawyer representing Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi has said that authorities in the military-ruled country have imposed a gag order on him because they believe his communications would cause instability.
Myanmar s state media has not reported developments in Aung San Suu Kyi's multiple legal cases filed after she was ousted in a February coup, and her lawyer Khin Maung Zaw has been the only source of public information on her trial and her wellbeing.
He said in a Facebook post on Friday that he had been banned from speaking to media, diplomats, foreign organisations and international governments and later posted details of the order.
Khin Maung Zaw s communications may cause harassment, hurting a person who is acting in accordance with the law, could cause riots and destabilise public peace, the order said.
Some illegal and local media outlets, local news outlets and media are inciting fake information that can destabilise the country. A spokesperson for the ruling military did not answer calls for comment.
Aung San Suu Kyi has been held in an undisclosed location since the January 1 coup with no means of communicating with the outside world, other than through her lawyers, who she meets only in court.
She is also charged with a litany of offences, including violating Myanmar s secrets protocol, illegally importing and possessing two-way radios, incitement to cause public alarm and breaking coronavirus protocols.
In his most recent media interviews, Win Myint gave a copy of the testimony of Aung San Suu Kyi s co-defendant, on Tuesday, supplied by text message, who told the court the military told him to resign hours before the coup, warning that he would otherwise be affected. He said he refused.
The lawyer said Win Myint had asked him to make public Aung San Suu Kyi's testimony, his first account of what took place before the coup.
Aung San Suu Kyi led a civilian government after her party swept a 2015 election called after the military stepped back from half a century of direct rule.
From first-time in writing on Wednesday, Junta spokesperson Zaw Min Tun said her case was being handled fairly by a judiciary that was independent.
The February coup ended a decade of academic steps towards democracy and economic growth after decades of tentative rule and economic stagnation.