RANGOON — Burma’s High Court will convene next week to consider an appeal by lawyers of jailed pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi to reinstate two key defense witnesses in a case she calls "politically motivated," her lawyer said Saturday.
“It is good to know that a date has been fixed to hear our argument,” lawyer Nyan Win said of the June 17 hearing.
The trial itself is scheduled to resume June 26. The District Court postponed it until that date so Suu Kyi’s lawyers could press their appeal for the witnesses, Nyan Win said Friday.
Suu Kyi is charged with violating the terms of her house arrest when an uninvited American man swam secretly to her closely guarded lakeside home last month and stayed two days.
The hearing has drawn outrage from the international community and Suu Kyi's local supporters, who say the military government is using the bizarre incident as an excuse to keep the Nobel Peace laureate detained through next year's elections.
If convicted, the 63-year-old faces up to five years in prison.
The District Court trying Suu Kyi had allowed only one of four defense witnesses to take the stand. On appeal, the Rangoon Divisional Court ruled Tuesday that a second witness could be heard.
But two senior members of Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party remain barred from giving testimony. Nyan Win said Suu Kyi gave her legal team instructions to pursue a second appeal in Burma’s High Court.
No new date has been set for the trial’s closing arguments, originally scheduled for June 1.
It is widely expected that Suu Kyi will be found guilty because courts in Burma are known for handing out harsh sentences to political dissidents.
Suu Kyi, who has been detained under house arrest for more than 13 of the last 19 years, was transferred to Insein Prison on May 14.
Asked about her health—she had been suffering from dehydration and low blood pressure just before being charged—Nyan Win said, “She is absolutely well... She looks cheerful and active as always.”
Her party won the country’s last elections in 1990 but was not allowed to take power by the military, which has run the country since 1962.
irrawaddy
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