Burma’s High Court on Wednesday granted a request by lawyers representing Aung San Suu Kyi to consider whether two more defense witnesses can testify before the special court trying her in Rangoon’s Insein Prison.
The two witnesses, Tin Oo and Win Tin, will give evidence on Friday, according to lawyer Nyan Win, one of Suu Kyi’s legal team. Her lawyers had appealed to Burma’s highest court to overturn the special court’s refusal to hear testimony from Tin Oo and Win Tin.
Tin Oo is vice chairman of the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD).
A former commander in chief of Burma’s armed forces, the Tatmadaw, he has been under house arrest since an attack on a convoy carrying him and Suu Kyi in 2003. His term of house arrest was extended for a further year in February.
Win Tin, a prominent editor, was Burma’s longest-serving political prisoner until his release last year.
They were among four witnesses the defense wished to present before the Insein court, which allowed only two. Evidence has been heard so far from one, legal expert Kyi Win, and a second, Khin Moe Moe, a legal expert from Shan State, is still waiting to appear before the court.
The decision to allow lawyers to press their case before Burma’s highest court for the admission of evidence from Tin Oo and Win Tin delays still further a trial that many observers expected to have ended by now.
Burmese political observers, within and outside Burma, said the delay was related to the increasing international pressure on Burma.
“At first, they [North District Court] called the trial every day, as if they wanted to finish it as fast as it could,” said Moe Zaw Oo, the secretary of the Foreign Affairs Department of the NLD in exile.
“I think there may be two reasons why the government is delaying Daw Suu’s trial,” Moe Zaw Oo told The Irrawaddy. “First, they [government] faced unexpected international pressure and media attention, so they postponed the court. When international pressure and media attention decreases they will sentence her.
“Second, they are considering whether to convict her or not and what the sentence should be.”
irrawaddy
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