More protests held in Myanmar as Suu Kyi's lawyer dismisses bribery claims

Myanmar activists held more rallies on Friday, a day after a rights group said security forces killed 12 protesters and as the lawyer of deposed leader Aung San Suu Kyi ridiculed new bribery allegations.

Protests were held in Yangon and several other towns on Friday, according to photographs posted on social media by witnesses and local news organisations.

There were no immediate reports of violence.

The Southeast Asian country has been in crisis since the army ousted Suu Kyi’s elected government in a February 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 on Thursday Suu Kyi had accepted illegal payments worth $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 Suu Kyi could mean she faces a harsher penalty. The Nobel Peace Prize laureate currently faces four comparatively minor charges - including illegally importing six walkie talkie radios and flouting coronavirus restrictions.

"This accusation is the most hilarious joke," 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 weakness 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 (AAPP) said.

The bloodshed also came hours after the UN Security Council had called for restraint from the army, which has been trying to put down daily anti-coup protests and paralysing strikes.

Pro-democracy activists urged people not to be cowed and in posts on social media called for night demonstrations on Friday and for strikes and civil disobedience campaigns that have paralysed swathes of the economy to continue.

Candlelight vigils by protesters in defiance of a curfew have occurred more frequently in recent weeks.