Wednesday, July 29, 2009

JUNTA'S MOUTH WARNS DAW SUU VERDICT AND DAW SUU' S HOME UNDER SEAL


A government mouthpiece newspaper said that anticipating Friday's ruling would amount to contempt of court, even as diplomats said they expected Suu Kyi to be convicted of charges that carry a maximum five-year jail term.

The New Light of Myanmar daily said the Nobel Peace Prize winner had indeed broken the law when she allowed an American man to stay at her home after he swam uninvited to her lakeside property in May, sparking the current trial.

But an editorial in the daily said: "There should be no prediction about who is guilty or who is not guilty until the court passes the judgement."

The two-page editorial alleged that Suu Kyi could have called for security when John Yettaw was discovered at the house but instead she "received the intruder" for two nights and provided him with food, lodging and clothes.

"Although the house and compound are regarded as restricted areas by law, one intruded and the other accepted. Doesn't it violate the law?" the newspaper said.

The two-and-a-half-month trial of Suu Kyi has unleased a wave of international condemnation and calls for her release from the notorious Insein prison, where the trial is taking place.

"We assume that the verdict will be a negative one. They could surprise us, but I don't think anyone is under any hope that they will," a British diplomat told AFP on condition of anonymity.

The diplomat said however there was "huge speculation" over the potential sentence, with critics saying that the junta merely wants to put Suu Kyi out of action until after elections that are due some time in 2010.

The opposition icon has been in detention for nearly 14 of the past 20 years since the junta refused to recognise her National League for Democracy's landslide victory in Myanmar's last polls, back in 1990.

"It's just a question of how long the sentence will be for, and whether she will be returned to house arrest in her home at the lake or given a prison sentence at Insein prison in Rangoon or somewhere else," the diplomat said.

Rangoon is the former name for the commercial hub Yangon.

Junta leader Than Shwe recently refused to allow UN chief Ban Ki-moon to see Suu Kyi during a visit to Myanmar, and diplomats were "not convinced they would be respectful of international concerns", the British official said.

Myanmar's all-powerful generals have shrugged off years of tough sanctions imposed by the United States and European Union. US President Barack Obama extended sanctions against Myanmar on Tuesday, including a ban on gem imports.

Ambassadors from the European Union and other countries have asked to be allowed to attend the final day of the trial Friday.

Her lawyer Nyan Win said on Tuesday that her defence team was "hoping for the best but preparing for the worst", a recognition of the heavy jail terms handed down by Myanmar's courts to dissidents in the past year.

Yettaw, who is on trial for breaching security laws, immigration violations and a municipal charge of "illegal swimming", also faces up to five years in jail, as do two female aides who lived with Suu Kyi at the time.

Suu Kyi has argued during the case that lax security was to blame for the visit and said that she only allowed Yettaw overnight refuge for humanitarian reasons.

Yettaw has told the court he was inspired to visit her by a divine vision that she would be assassinated.

Amnesty International this week announced that Suu Kyi was its ambassador of conscience for 2009, the international group's highest honour.

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