Prison court extends Aung San Suu Kyi case by a day (2nd Roundup)

Jul 27, 2009, 12:58 GMT

   Yangon - A court in Yangon's Insein Prison on Monday extended by a day the trial of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, her two aides and a US national who swam to her lakeside home three months ago.

   Defence and prosecution lawyers presented their final arguments Monday in the case against Suu Kyi's two housekeepers, Khin Win and Win Ma Ma, and John William Yettaw, who swam to Suu Kyi's house-cum-prison on May 3 and stayed there until May 5.

   At the end of the hearing, the court allowed the defence another hearing on Tuesday to permit it to present its answers to the prosecution's arguments, defence lawyer Nyan Win said.

   Final arguments for Suu Kyi's case were already presented on Friday, but Nyan Win said he would attempt Tuesday to persuade the court to allow new witnesses for her case.

   He said he intends to argue that since Suu Kyi was never officially under detention, according to the government's wording, and had been kept in her Yangon house for six years for 'security reasons,' she could not have broken the terms of her detention and, therefore, requires new witnesses to argue this point.

   Nyan Win said he would also object to an article that appeared in a government-run newspaper Thursday that said Suu Kyi was guilty, which, he said, unfairly biased judges against her in the case.

   Suu Kyi, who has been confined for 13 of the past 19 years, faces an additional five years of detention for breaching the terms of her house arrest after Yettaw's intrusion.

   Her housekeepers face similar charges for facilitating Yettaw's uninvited visit, and Yettaw himself has been charged with violating the terms of his visa and swimming illegally in Yangon's Inya Lake.

   It was not yet known when the court would issue its verdicts in the four cases.

   The Nobel Peace Prize laureate has been accused of breaking the terms of her detention by allowing Yettaw to enter her compound without informing the authorities.

   On Friday, the prison court heard her lead attorney, U Kyi Win, present the 30-page defence case that she was an innocent party to an intrusion that should have been prevented by her military guards.

   Suu Kyi's legal team has asked why the authorities did not respond to Suu Kyi's earlier complaint when Yettaw first broke into her compound to try to contact her in November.

   Critics of Myanmar's military regime consider Yettaw's intrusions an unintended gift to the junta, giving it an excuse to detain Suu Kyi after her previous six-year detention expired on May 27.

   The military government is believed to want her confined until at least after elections planned for 2010.

   Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party won the 1990 general elections by a landslide but has been blocked from power by Myanmar's junta for the past 19 years.

   The new trial of Suu Kyi has sparked a chorus of protests from world leaders and even strongly worded statements from Myanmar's regional allies in the Association of South-East Asian Nations.

   US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton last week offered Myanmar improved relations if it released Suu Kyi, but there was no indication the junta would agree.

   The New Light of Myanmar, a state-run newspaper, said Friday in an editorial that 'demanding the release of Suu Kyi means showing reckless disregard for the law.'