Yangon - A Myanmar court postponed the controversial trial
of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Friday, minutes after the
arrival of United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to the
military-run country.
'The trial has been postponed until July 10,' Nyan Win, one of Suu
Kyi's lawyers, said.
On Friday defence witness Khin Moe Moe was scheduled to testify at
a court set up at Insein Prison to try Suu Kyi for breaking the terms
of her detention by allegedly permitting US national John William
Yettaw to swim to her lakeside home-cum-prison on May 3 and stay
until May 5.
'Insein Prison court judges said they were still awaiting case
documents from the Supreme Court so they decided to postpone Khin Moe
Moe's testimony,' Nyan Win said.
The postponement was announced minutes after UN chief Ban arrived
in Yangon on a two-day official trip designed to press Myanmar's
ruling junta to release Suu Kyi, the leader of the National League
for Democracy opposition party, and some 2,100 other political
prisoners in the military-ruled nation.
Ban was scheduled to travel to Naypyitaw, 350 kilometres north of
Yangon, to meet with military supremo Senior General Than Shwe, and
representatives of the NLD, other political parties and ethnic
minority groups.
Ban is expected to urge Than Shwe to release Suu Kyi, but Myanmar
watchers doubt he will succeed in persuading the general.
It is still unclear whether he will be allowed to meet with Suu
Kyi, who is now a resident of Insein Prison.
Suu Kyi's trial began May 11. While the prosecution was allowed to
present 14 witnesses in the first week, the defence was initially
allowed only one. Later a second witness, NLD member and attorney
Khin Moe Moe, was permitted.
Suu Kyi, who has spent 13 of the past 19 years in detention,
stands accused of breaking the terms of her latest house detention by
permitting Yettaw, a 53-year-old Vietnam War veteran and member of
the Mormon sect, to swim to her house on Yangon's Inya Lake May 3 and
spend two nights there before swimming away.
Critics have accused the military junta of using the case as a
pretext to keep the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize laureate in jail during a
politically sensitive period leading up to a general election planned
for next year.
Suu Kyi's NLD won the 1990 general election by a landslide but has
been blocked from power by Myanmar's junta for the past 19 years.
The new trial of Suu Kyi, whose most recent six-year house
detention sentence expired May 27, has sparked a chorus of protests
from world leaders and even statements of concern from its regional
allies in the Association of South-East Asian Nations.
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