Burmese Court to Hear Appeal from Aung San Suu Kyi
By VOA News
03 June 2009
A Burmese court has agreed to hear an appeal by lawyers representing pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi about the numbers of witnesses they can call to testify on her behalf.
Attorney Nyan Win told VOA's Burmese Service that the divisional court issued the ruling Wednesday, one day after the appeal of an earlier trial court decision to bar three defense witnesses was filed. Only one witness has been allowed to testify for Aung San Suu Kyi, while there have been 14 prosecution witnesses.
The appeal will be heard on Friday, when closing arguments in Aung San Suu Kyi's had been scheduled. Those arguments have been postponed.
The Nobel Peace laureate is facing a five-year prison sentence if she is convicted of violating the terms of her house arrest.
The charges stem from an incident early last month, when she allowed American John Yettaw to stay at her lakeside house in the main city of Rangoon overnight after he swam there uninvited.
The international community has condemned the trial, which is seen as a pretext to keep the opposition leader in detention through the next year's election. She has spent 13 of the last 19 years under house arrest. Members of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) have urged Burma's military rulers to release Aung San Suu Kyi, along with more than 2,000 other political prisoners.
The military has ruled Burma since 1962. Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy won elections in 1990, but the military leadership refused to recognize the results.
Some information for this report was provided by AFP
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