Aung San Suu Kyi Found Guilty - Sentence Will Keep Her Out of Election
TIMES ONLINE: The Burmese democracy leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, has been sentenced to a further 18 months of house arrest for receiving an eccentric American wellwisher in the home where she was being detained.

The court in Rangoon’s Insein Prison sentenced Ms Suu Kyi to three years hard labour, but it was immediately commuted to a year and a half under house arrest by the leader of Burma’s military dictatorship, Senior General Than Shwe. John Yettaw, the American whose late-night swim to her lakeside home led to her trial, received a seven-year sentence with hard labour.

The sentence will take Ms Suu Kyi out of the running for the elections which the Burmese junta has promised to hold next year, and will confirm many of its opponents in their suspicion that the charges against her were politically motivated to eliminate the symbol of the country’s long suppressed democracy movement.

Ms Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy won an overwhelming victory in the last election in 1990, a result that was never accepted by the junta.

The verdict had been delayed without explanation for 11 days, and there had been suspicions that it might be postponed again after Mr Yettaw was admitted to hospital last week after suffering epileptic seizures.

According to her lawyers, Ms Suu Kyi had been anticipating a guilty verdict, and had assembled a library of books to see her through a long prison sentence. Burma has more than 2,000 political prisoners and almost all received no more than perfunctory consideration from the courts, which predictably yield to the wishes of the military dictatorship. >>> Richard Lloyd Parry, Asia Editor | Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Suu Kyi: Sarkozy appelle à des sanctions
leJDD.fr: Nicolas Sarkozy condamne le verdict "brutal et injuste", qui touche l'opposante birmane Aung San Suu Kyi, condamné mardi à 18 mois de prison. "Les autorités birmanes confirment par cette décision inique leur choix d'ignorer les messages pressants de la communauté internationale", estime l'Élysée dans un communiqué publié mardi. Le chef de l'Etat appelle l'Union européenne à réagir rapidement "par l'adoption de nouvelles sanctions dirigées contre le régime birman, qui doivent viser tout particulièrement les ressources dont il profite directement dans le domaine de l'exploitation du bois et des rubis", poursuit le texte. [Source: leJDD.fr] Mardi 11 Août 2009

Prison Looms for Aung San Suu Kyi as Burma Show Trial Draws to a Close
TIMES ONLINE: The Burmese democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi is facing an almost certain criminal conviction and a sentence of up to five years in prison when a Rangoon court delivers its verdict at the end of this week, her defence team said yesterday.

Wrapping up her two-and-a-half-month trial, Ms Suu Kyi’s lawyers gave their reply to the prosecution’s final arguments in a court in Insein prison, Rangoon. She is accused of violating the terms of her lengthy house arrest by giving shelter to an eccentric American who entered the lakeside home where she has spent 14 of the past 20 years in detention.

Speaking softly, Ms Suu Kyi stood and turned to diplomats attending the hearing and said: “I’m afraid the verdict will be painfully obvious.”

“She thanked us for trying to promote a just outcome,” said an Asian diplomat who spoke on condition of anonymity. Only diplomats from the US, Japan, Singapore and Thailand were allowed to attend the last day of the trial.

Her lawyers held out little hope of an acquittal when the verdict is delivered. “We have a good chance according to the law but we cannot know what the court will decide because this is a political case,” said Nyan Win, a lawyer for Ms Suu Kyi and the spokesman for her party, the National League for Democracy. “I have never seen any defendant in a political case being set free. We have done our best and she is prepared for the worst.” >>> Richard Lloyd Parry, Asia Editor | Wedmesday, July 29, 2009

Aung San Suu Kyi 'Fears Worst' as Trial Nears an End
TIMES ONLINE: Burma’s democracy leader is “preparing for the worst” as her two and a half month trial for giving shelter to an eccentric American well wisher nears its conclusion, one of her lawyers said today.

Aung San Suu Kyi's defence team summed up their case in the court in Rangoon’s notorious Insein Prison where she is on trial for allegedly breaching the terms of her detention under house arrest. Also on trial is John Yettaw, a US citizen who swam uninvited to her lakeside house because he had dreamed of her assassination and wanted to warn her of impending danger.

Her two house companions are also charged, and defence arguments for them and for Mr Yettaw will continue on Monday. Foreign diplomats from European embassies in Rangoon were allowed into court for the first time in several weeks, but her lawyer, Nyan Win, suggested that Ms Suu Kyi held out little hope of avoiding conviction, which could bring a sentence of five years and exclusion from the elections which the unelected junta promises to hold next year.

“As for her, she is preparing for the worst,” he told Reuters after the hearing. >>> Richard Lloyd Parry, Asia Editor | Friday, July 24, 2009

Anger Mounts at Fate of Aung San Suu Kyi
Aung San Suu Kyi. Photo courtesy of TimesOnline
TIMESONLINE: There was a growing international outcry last night about the incarceration of Aung San Suu Kyi, the Burmese democracy leader, as more details emerged about the incident that led to her transfer to the country’s most notorious jail.

Ms Suu Kyi, winner of the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize, faces up to five years in Insein prison, a high-security institution which houses more than 2,000 political prisoners, after an American swam across a lake and sneaked into her house, where she was less than two weeks from completing a sentence of house arrest.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee, which rarely comments on its laureates, issued a statement saying that her detention in prison was totally unacceptable. Several governments, including Britain, the United States and Singapore, have also condemned Ms Suu Kyi’s treatment.

The wife of John Yettaw, the man who swam to Ms Suu Kyi’s home, said that he had done so once before, last year, but was prevented from seeing the Nobel laureate by her house staff. >>> James Bone | Saturday, May 16, 2009