YANGON • The lawyer representing Myanmar's former leader Aung San Suu Kyi has said he is preparing for the worst in a trial he fears could take six months, as hundreds of thousands of people marched in the country yesterday, rejecting the army's assertion that the public supported its overthrow of Ms Suu Kyi.

Mr Khin Maung Zaw is defending the ousted civilian leader, who was detained during the Feb 1 coup on an obscure charge under the country's import and export laws for illegally importing six walkie-talkie radios.

The military regime has also hit Ms Suu Kyi with another criminal charge, accusing her of holding an election campaign event last year which the junta claims breached Covid-19 restrictions under natural disaster management laws.

"We hope for the best but are prepared for the worst," Mr Khin Maung Zaw told Agence France-Presse by phone yesterday, adding he is hoping for a fair trial.

The veteran human rights lawyer said he applied yesterday for permission to speak to his client and receive instructions ahead of the next court hearing on March 1.

"When will this be granted? I don't know," he said.

He said he has not been allowed to meet Ms Suu Kyi in person and is worried about the confidentiality of their discussions over video or phone calls.

"It's more appropriate to meet with her in person without being interfered by anyone," he said.

At the next hearing, the judge, prosecutor and defence lawyer will discuss the complexity of the case and work out a timeframe for proceedings and schedule for witnesses.

Mr Khin Maung Zaw said if the case is considered simple, it could be wrapped up in six months, but if it is deemed to be more complex, it could drag out for a year or more.

At Tuesday's hearing, his junior colleague was barred from being inside the room with the judge and prosecutor who could see Ms Suu Kyi by video link.

"He couldn't see her because we weren't allowed to participate in the video conference as we weren't duly appointed at the time," Mr Khin Maung Zaw said, adding that his colleague could hear the voices of the judge and defendant.

A United Nations special envoy has hit out at the "secretive trial" of Ms Suu Kyi and ousted president Win Myint, who also faces the same charge under natural disaster management laws.

The pair are in a "safer place" and "in good health", according to military spokesman Zaw Min Tun, who addressed the media in Naypyitaw on Tuesday.

He became the country's Vice-Minister of Information after the coup. "It's not like they were arrested. They are staying at their houses," he said.

Opponents of the coup are deeply sceptical of the junta's assurances, given at the news conference on Tuesday, that there would be a fair election and it would hand over power.

Brigadier-General Zaw Min Tun said that 40 million of the 53 million population supported the military's action.

But Mr Sithu Maung, an elected member of Ms Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy, told tens of thousands of people at the Sule Pagoda, a central protest site in Yangon: "We're showing here that we're not in that 40 million."

Ms Suu Kyi's party swept a Nov 8 election as widely expected, but the army alleged there was fraud. It said its seizure of power was in line with the Constitution and it remained committed to democracy.

Protests in cities across Myanmar were some of the biggest since daily demonstrations began on Feb 6 to denounce the coup that halted an unsteady transition to democracy from half a century of army rule and isolation.

The army announced yesterday that police complaints had been filed against six local celebrities under an anti-incitement law for encouraging civil servants to join in the protest.

The charges can carry a two-year prison sentence.

Actor Pyay Ti Oo, one of the six, told protesters: "If we don't win this battle, our future, the future of our generation, the future of our children, will be lost."

The military's takeover has also drawn strong criticism from the West, with renewed anger from Washington and London over the additional charge for Ms Suu Kyi.

Tens of thousands took to the streets in the city of Mandalay - the second-largest city in Myanmar after Yangon - where some people also blocked its main rail link, and crowds gathered in several other places.

In Yangon and elsewhere, motorists also responded to a "broken-down car campaign" that spread on social media, stopping their cars with bonnets raised on streets and bridges to block police and military trucks.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, REUTERS