Myanmar activists held more rallies Friday - a day after a rights group said security forces killed 12 protesters and as the lawyer of deposed leader Aung San Suu Kyi said new bribery allegations against her were ridiculous.
Protests were held in Yangon, Myanmar's biggest city and several other towns Friday, according to photographs posted on social media by witnesses and local news organizations. There were no immediate reports of violence.
The army ousted Aung San Suu Kyi's elected government in a Feb. 1 coup, detained her and officials of her National League for Democracy party and set up a ruling junta of generals.
Junta spokesman, Brigadier General Zaw Min Tun, said Thursday Aung San Suu Kyi had accepted illegal payments worth US$600,000, as well as gold, while in government, according to a complaint by Phyo Mien Thein, a former chief minister of Yangon.
Adding corruption charges to the accusations against Aung San Suu Kyi could mean she faces a harsher penalty. She currently faces four comparatively minor charges - including illegally importing six walkie talkie radios and flouting coronavirus restrictions.
"This accusation is the most hilarious joke," Aung San Suu Kyi's lawyer Khin Maung Zaw said in a statement posted on social media. "She might have other weaknesses but she doesn't have weaknesses in moral principle."
Thursday was one of the deadliest days since the military took power.
Among the dead were eight people killed in the central town of Myaing when security forces fired on a protest, the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners said.
Meanwhile, Reuters reported a court in Myanmar extended custody Friday for five journalists, including one from U.S. news agency The Associated Press, who were arrested while covering anti-junta protests in the biggest city of Yangon last month, a lawyer said.
More than 70 people have been killed and about 2,000 arrested in a crackdown on protests since Myanmar's military took power in a coup Feb. 1, advocacy body the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners says.
The six journalists, all arrested Feb. 27, were not brought to court but attended the hearing via teleconference from prison. They have not been allowed to see their families or lawyers in person since the arrest.
Lawyer Tin Zar Oo said the case of her client, Thein Zaw of The Associated Press, and four others, would next be heard March 24.
"He seems OK, but he said he has asthma, so he is a bit uncomfortable," she said, speaking of Thein Zaw. "His family members got to talk to him."
Another court extended detention until March 25 for a sixth journalist, from Myanmar Now, the group's editor-in-chief, Swe Win, said.
Court officials did not comment.
The U.S. state department has voiced concern at the arrests and urged the immediate release of the journalists.
Authorities in Myanmar have raided the offices of four independent news organisations during the last few days. The government has also stripped the licences of five organisations that have been active in covering the protests.
At least 35 journalists have been arrested since the Feb. 1 coup, Myanmar Now reported, of whom 19 have been released.
A junta spokesman told a news conference Thursday that the military respected and valued press freedom but that the arrested journalists were provoking unrest.
