AFP

YANGON (AFP) – The internationally condemned trial of Myanmar democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi neared its climax Monday as lawyers for her two female aides gave their closing arguments at a prison court.

The detained Nobel peace laureate, 64, faces five years in jail on charges of violating her house arrest over a bizarre incident in which an American man, John Yettaw, swam uninvited to her lakeside home in Yangon in May.

Her lawyers gave final statements on Friday, and on Monday lawyers spoke for Khin Khin Win and Win Ma Ma, two assistants who lived with her at the property and face similar charges, a Myanmar official said.

Yettaw’s lawyers are set to deliver closing arguments later Monday to the court at Yangon’s notorious Insein prison — where all four defendants are being held — followed by the prosecution, the official said.

Nyan Win, one of Suu Kyi’s lawyers, said that Suu Kyi’s legal team were then expected to have a chance to reply after that but that it could be “two or three weeks” until a verdict comes.

Diplomats from the United States, Japan, Singapore, Australia, Malaysia and the Philippines were allowed to attend Monday’s hearing. Most of the trial has taken place behind closed doors.

The trial has unleashed a storm of international outrage, with critics saying Myanmar’s ruling junta is using the charges as an excuse to keep Suu Kyi locked up for elections promised by the regime next year.

Her trial began just days before the latest period of her house arrest was due to expire. She has spent most of the last two decades in detention since the junta refused to recognise her party’s victory in elections in 1990.

Myanmar’s state media Sunday hit back at US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who called for Suu Kyi’s release at when she appeared at Asia’s biggest security forum last week, held in Thailand.

Clinton had warned that Myanmar was possibly receiving nuclear technology from North Korea, although she also held out the carrot of increased US investment if it frees the opposition leader.

“This is really interfering with ASEAN’s (the Association of Southeast Asian Nations) internal affairs,” said the state-run Myanma Ahlin newspaper.

“If ASEAN obeys the United States Secretary of State, ASEAN will be under the United States’ influence,” the comment piece said.

Nyan Win, also a spokesman for Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy, said Friday that the legal team welcomed calls for her release from foreign ministers at the Thailand meeting.

He said the opposition leader’s main lawyer, Kyi Win, read out a 30-page final statement at the trial on Friday and her legal team was “satisfied” with their arguments.

But he said that Suu Kyi was displeased that the prosecution was effectively getting extra time to prepare its arguments.

Both Suu Kyi and her lawyers have previously accused the court of bias. The prosecution was allowed to call 14 witnesses while she was allowed only two, and one of those only after an appeal to the Supreme Court.

REUTERS

Myanmar court hears final arguments in Suu Kyi case

By Aung Hla Tun Aung Hla Tun – Mon Jul 27, 1:22 am ET

YANGON (Reuters) – A court in army-ruled Myanmar heard final arguments on Monday in a case involving opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who faces five years in prison if found guilty of breaching a draconian security law.

Lawyers read closing arguments for the other defendants, two of Suu Kyi’s housemaids and John Yettaw, an American intruder whose two-night stay at Suu Kyi’s home in May could land all four defendants in jail.

The prosecution may wrap up its case against Suu Kyi later on Monday, court officials said.

However, Suu Kyi’s lawyer, Nyan Win, told Reuters he did not believe a verdict was imminent.

“I expect all the arguments will be made today but I think the verdict might take as long as two or three weeks,” he said.

A guilty verdict is widely expected in a country where courts are known to rule in favor of the army, which has governed the former Burma for nearly 50 years.

The trial began in May and has been held mostly behind closed doors, although several European diplomats were allowed to attend Friday’s proceedings, when lawyers for Suu Kyi concluded their defense statements.

The case has been dismissed as a show trial by critics, and the international community has repeatedly called for the charges to be dropped and for Suu Kyi, 64, to be freed.

She is charged with breaching the terms of her house arrest by allowing Yettaw to stay at her home, but her legal team argue that the law she is charged under is obsolete.

Yettaw told the court last month that he wanted to warn Suu Kyi she would be assassinated by “terrorists.” Suu Kyi has blamed the authorities for the security lapse.

At an Asia-Pacific security forum in Thailand on Thursday, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton offered Myanmar the prospect of better relations with the United States but said that depended in part on the fate of Suu Kyi.

The junta has given no indication it will accept the offer and a commentary published in three state-controlled newspapers on Sunday accused Clinton of interfering in regional affairs and seeking to assert U.S. power over Southeast Asia.

Lawyer Nyan Win said on Friday it was unlikely Clinton’s calls for reform would be heeded, adding that the National League for Democracy (NLD) leader was “preparing for the worst.”

Suu Kyi has been in detention for 14 of the past 20 years, mostly under house arrest.

The NLD won Myanmar’s last general election in 1990 by a landslide but the generals ignored the result. Critics have expressed concern that next year’s polls will be rigged to further entrench army rule.

(Writing by Martin Petty; Editing by Alan Raybould and Dean Yates)