The head lawyer representing Myanmar's ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi said on Friday that authorities in the military-ruled country had imposed a gag order on him because they believed his communications could cause instability.
Myanmar's state media have not reported developments in Suu Kyi's multiple legal cases filed after she was ousted in a February coup, and her lawyer Khin Maung Zaw, left Myanmar, has been the only source of information on her trial and her well being.
He said in a Facebook post that he had been barred from speaking to media, diplomats, foreign organizations and international governments and then posted details of the order.
Khin Maung Zaw's communication may cause harassment, hurting a person who is acting in accordance with the law, may cause riots and destabilize public peace, the order said.
Some legal and local media outlets, illegal media outlets and the media are inciting fake news that could destabilize the country. A spokesman for the ruling military did not respond to calls seeking comment.
Suu Kyi has been held in an undisclosed location since the Feb. 1 coup with no means of communicating with the outside world other than through her lawyers who she meets only in court.
She is charged with a litany of offenses, including breaking coronavirus protocols, importing and possessing two-way radios, incitement to cause public alarm and violating the Official Secrets Act.
In his most recent correspondence with the media, Win Myint on Tuesday provided a summary of the testimony of Suu Kyi's co-defendant who at the court told the military that the military had told him to resign hours before the coup, warning he would otherwise be harmed. He said he had refused.
The lawyer said Win Myint had asked him to make public Suu Kyi's testimony, his first account of what took place before the coup.
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.
Suu Kyi spokesman Zaw Min Tun said in written remarks on Wednesday that Junta's President Suu Kyi is being handled fairly by an independent judiciary.
The February coup ended a decade of tentative steps toward democracy and economic growth after decades of authoritarian rule and economic stagnation.