Myanmar's deposed elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi is in good health and is expected to appear in court Monday, The Manila Times reported.
A Nobel Peace Prize laureate for her long struggle against previous military rulers, Suu Kyi, 75, is one of the more than 4,000 people detained since Myanmar's military took over the country.
The coup has plunged the Southeast Asian nation into chaos. Suu Kyi faces a string of criminal charges that range from illegal possession of walkie-talkie radios, flouting coronavirus restrictions to violating a state secrets law.
Speaking in Burmese, Myanmar's junta chief Min Aung Hlaing said Suu Kyi has been "staying at home and will appear in court in a few days," during the general's first TV interview since the Feb. 1 coup.
Suu Kyi has not been seen in public since she was placed under house arrest. So far she has appeared only by video link and has yet to be given permission to speak directly to her attorneys who have faced an uphill battle to meet with their client in private.
The military government said they could not allow Suu Kyi to speak to her lawyers in private, citing security reasons, as the military has not established full control of the nation in the wake of daily protests and renewed fighting with rebel groups, Al Jazeera reported.
Asked about what he thought of the performance of Suu Kyi, who is widely admired in the country of 53 million for her advocacy that had brought democratic reforms but were cut short by the coup, Hlaing said, "she tried all she could."
According to the coup leader, the military had taken over because it had identified fraud in an election that Suu Kyi's party won in November - although this claim was rejected by the then election officials.
Myanmar's security forces have killed at least 815 people since the coup, the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners activist group said. But Hlaing said the number was only around 300 and that 47 members of the police had also been killed.
