Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi returned to court on Tuesday, a day after she did not appear because she was unwell, seeming relieved but saying she was still “somewhat dizzy,” her lawyer said.
The health of 76-year-old Suu Kyi is closely watched in Myanmar, where she spent many years in detention for challenging its military governments. She is on trial over multiple charges since her overthrow in a Feb. 1 coup.
Suu Kyi could not appear on Monday due to dizziness and drowsiness that her legal team said was caused by motion sickness while being driven to court from the undisclosed location where she is being held.
“Daw Aung San Suu Kyi seemed quite relieved, but she said she was still somewhat dizzy,” chief lawyer Khin Maung Zaw said by text message, referring to her by a Myanmar honorific.
The Nobel Peace Prize winner is charged with a litany of offenses, including breaking coronavirus protocols, illegally possessing two-way radios, accepting bribes of cash and gold, incitement to cause public alarm and violating the Official Secrets Act.
Her lawyers have rejected the accusations.
The cases are being handled by courts in Yangon, Mandalay and Naypyitaw, which some of her allies fear could tie her up in legal proceedings for years.
The court was scheduled to proceed with two cases on Tuesday, the second of which was adjourned after prosecution witnesses failed to appear.
Myanmar has suffered political and economic paralysis since Suu Kyi’s elected government was toppled, sparkling a nationwide backlash, with protests and violence in the countryside and in its biggest cities.
Diplomatic efforts to resolve the crisis have made little progress. Many of Suu Kyi’s loyalists have fled or have been arrested or joined a shadow government of junta opponents that has called for a revolt.
Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi returns to court but still ‘somewhat dizzy’
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Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi returns to court but still ‘somewhat dizzy’
- The health of 76-year-old Nobel Peace Prize winner is closely watched in Myanmar
UK pays Guantanamo detainee ‘substantial’ compensation over US torture questions
- Abu Zubaydah has been held at Guantanamo Bay without charge for 20 years
- British security services knew he was subjected to ‘enhanced interrogation’ but failed to raise concerns for 4 years
LONDON: A Saudi-born Palestinian being held without trial by the US has received a “substantial” compensation payment from the UK government, the BBC reported.
Abu Zubaydah has been imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba for almost 20 years following his capture in Pakistan in 2002, and was subjected to “enhanced interrogation” techniques by the CIA.
He was accused of being a senior member of Al-Qaeda in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terror attacks on the US. The allegations were later dropped but he remains in detention.
The compensation follows revelations that UK security services submitted questions to the US to be put to Abu Zubaydah by their US counterparts despite knowledge of his mistreatment.
He alleged that MI5 and MI6 had been “complicit” in torture, leading to a legal case and the subsequent compensation.
Dominic Grieve, the UK’s former attorney general, chaired a panel reviewing Abu Zubaydah’s case.
He described the compensation as “very unusual” but said the treatment of Abu Zubaydah had been “plainly” wrong, the BBC reported.
Grieve added that the security services had evidence that the “Americans were behaving in a way that should have given us cause for real concern,” and that “we (UK authorities) should have raised it with the US and, if necessary, closed down co-operation, but we failed to do that for a considerable period of time.”
Abu Zubaydah’s international legal counsel, Prof. Helen Duffy, said: “The compensation is important, it’s significant, but it’s insufficient.”
She added that more needs to be done to secure his release, stating: “These violations of his rights are not historic, they are ongoing.”
Duffy said Abu Zubaydah would continue to fight for his freedom, adding: “I am hopeful that the payment of the substantial sums will enable him to do that and to support himself when he’s in the outside world.”
He is one of 15 people still being held at Guantanamo, many without charge. Following his initial detention, he arrived at the prison camp having been the first person to be taken to a so-called CIA “black site.”
He spent time at six such locations, including in Lithuania and Poland, outside of US legal jurisdiction.
Internal MI6 messages revealed that the “enhanced interrogation” techniques he was subjected to would have “broken” the resolve of an estimated 98 percent of US special forces members had they been subjected to them.
CIA officers later decided he would be permanently cut off from the outside world, with then-President George W. Bush publicly saying Abu Zubaydah had been “plotting and planning murder.”
However, the US has since withdrawn the allegations and no longer says he was a member of Al-Qaeda.
A report by the US Senate Select Committee on Intelligence said Abu Zubaydah had been waterboarded at least 83 times, was locked in a coffin-like box for extended periods, and had been regularly assaulted. Much of his treatment would be considered torture under UK law.
Despite knowledge of his treatment, it was four years before British security services raised concerns with their American counterparts, and their submission of questions within that period had “created a market” for the torture of detainees, Duffy said.
A 2018 report by the UK Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee was deeply critical of the behavior of MI5 and MI6 in relation to Abu Zubaydah.
It also criticized conduct relating to Guantanamo detainee Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, widely regarded as a key architect of the Sept. 11 attacks, warning that the precedent set by Abu Zubaydah’s legal action could be used by Mohammed to bring a separate case against the UK.
MI5 and MI6 failed to comment on Abu Zubaydah’s case. Neither the UK government nor Mohammed’s legal team would comment on a possible case over his treatment.
