Yangon: Myanmar’s Nobel Prize-winning pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi faced new charges on Thursday less than two weeks before her house arrest was due to end after a US man swam across a lake to enter her home.
Supporters accused the military government of using the incident to keep her in detention ahead of general elections next year.
Suu Kyi, whose detention was set to end on May 27, could face a prison term of up to five years if convicted, said lawyer Hla Myo Myint. The trial is scheduled to start on Monday at a special court at Yangon’s notorious Insein Prison, where she was arraigned on Thursday.
She is accused of breaking the terms of her detention by harbouring the visitor for two days, even though another of Suu Kyi’s lawyers said she told the man to leave her home.
Human rights groups said they feared the trial would be used to justify another extension of Suu Kyi’s years-long detention despite international demands for her release. The 63-year-old Nobel Peace Prize laureate has already spent over 13 of the last 19 years in detention without trial for her non-violent promotion of democracy in Myanmar.
The motives of the American, John William Yettaw, 53, remained unclear. State TV on Thursday said he had served two years in the military and listed his occupation as “student”. AP
Supporters accused the military government of using the incident to keep her in detention ahead of general elections next year.
Suu Kyi, whose detention was set to end on May 27, could face a prison term of up to five years if convicted, said lawyer Hla Myo Myint. The trial is scheduled to start on Monday at a special court at Yangon’s notorious Insein Prison, where she was arraigned on Thursday.
She is accused of breaking the terms of her detention by harbouring the visitor for two days, even though another of Suu Kyi’s lawyers said she told the man to leave her home.
Human rights groups said they feared the trial would be used to justify another extension of Suu Kyi’s years-long detention despite international demands for her release. The 63-year-old Nobel Peace Prize laureate has already spent over 13 of the last 19 years in detention without trial for her non-violent promotion of democracy in Myanmar.
The motives of the American, John William Yettaw, 53, remained unclear. State TV on Thursday said he had served two years in the military and listed his occupation as “student”. AP
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