YANGON (AFP) — Democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi believes her trial by Myanmar's junta is politically motivated, her lawyer said Thursday, as France and Germany piled renewed pressure on the military regime over the case.
The Nobel Peace Prize winner, aged 63 and recently in poor health, faces up to five years in jail on charges that she broke the rules of her house arrest when an American man swam to her lakeside property in May.
"Daw Aung San Suu Kyi said yesterday when we met that the trial is politically motivated," lawyer Nyan Win told AFP a day after meeting the opposition leader at Yangon's notorious Insein prison, where she is held.
The charges could keep her locked up far beyond controversial elections promised by the ruling generals next year, which critics have dismissed as a sham because Aung San Suu Kyi is barred from standing.
Meanwhile, during a joint news conference on Thursday with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said he had sought to speak by phone to the activist but the military government denied his request.
"We are asking our Chinese and Indian friends for help and to take into account the concern that we have for the Nobel Peace Prize winner ahead of a conviction that appears, unfortunately, unavoidable," said Sarkozy.
Aung San Suu Kyi's legal team submitted a high court application on Thursday seeking an appeal to allow testimony from two defence witnesses who were banned by judges at the closed-door trial being held at the prison.
"The high court will hold a hearing for admission on the coming 17th (June)," said Nyan Win, who is also the spokesman for her National League for Democracy (NLD).
The barred witnesses are Win Tin, a dissident journalist who was Myanmar's longest serving prisoner until his release in September, and Tin Oo, the detained deputy leader of the NLD.
The trial is due to resume for a procedural hearing on Friday but Aung San Suu Kyi's lawyers have said there can be no verdict for at least another two weeks because of the appeals.
Nyan Win also said that the wife of another of Aung San Suu Kyi's lawyers had been fired from her government job on Tuesday, which he took as a political move by the authorities.
Lawyer Hla Myo Myint's wife Khin Khin Aye was dismissed from her work as a senior manager overseeing cooperative-run businesses.
"We assume that it is to put pressure on us because of the trial," Nyan Win said.
He added that Aung San Suu Kyi is "not very satisfied" that her lakeside home is still guarded by authorities despite her house arrest having officially ended in May.
"She said that her house arrest ended on May 26, but her friends are not allowed to go into her house for cleaning. Security staff said they are still waiting for permission from their superiors," he told AFP.
Aung San Suu Kyi has spent 13 of the last 19 years in detention since the junta refused to recognise the NLD's landslide victory in the country's last elections, in 1990.
No comments:
Post a Comment