by Phanida
Friday, 17 July 2009 22:12
Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – Burma’s democracy icon, Aung San Suu Kyi met her legal team on Friday, to discuss the final arguments of her trial in Rangoon’s notorious Insein prison.
The authorities allowed Aung San Suu Kyi’s lawyers Nyan Win, Kyi Win, Hla Myo Myint and Khin Htay Kywe inside Insein prison, where they had parleys on the final arguments to be submitted to the District Court on July 24. They discussed the legalities for over two hours.
“We discussed the second draft of our final argument and decided on areas to delete or modify,” Nyan Win, a member of Aung San Suu Kyi’s legal team told Mizzima.
He said they had drafted a 23-page final argument to be submitted in court in defense of the Burmese Nobel Peace Laureate.
Aung San Suu Kyi said the charges against her were unacceptable as no security personnel had been arrested for dereliction of duty for they could not deter and detect the intrusion in a high security area, by an American man John William Yettaw, Nyan Win quoted her as saying.
The Burmese pro-democracy leader was charged and put on trial for violating her detention rules by ‘harbouring’ Yettaw, who swam across the Inya Lake and secretly entered her lakeside home in early May 2009.
Nyan Win said the health of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and her two live-in party mates - Khin Khin Win and her daughter Win Pa Pa - is fine.
On July 10, the special court in Insein Prison heard the testimony of Khin Moe Moe, the second defence witness of Aung San Suu Kyi and fixed the hearing of the final argument for July 24.
In her testimony, Khin Moe Moe said that since Burma’s 1974 Constitution is no longer in force, the Burmese democracy icon cannot be charged and prosecuted by the law defined in the 1974 Constitution.
However, the prosecution defended that though the regime has been changed, the 1974 constitution is still in force.
The police acted as prosecutor against Aung San Suu Kyi and filed a case against her for flouting her detention law. If found guilty, she could be sentenced up to 5 years in prison.
However, critics said the ruling military junta had used the case as a pretext to explore a method to continue her detention, as her detention period expired on May 27.
International and domestic legal experts said, as the Burmese law only provides a maximum of five years of consecutive detention, Aung San Suu Kyi, who was last arrested and detained in May 2003, has completed her term and that the junta is violating its own law.
The junta, however, said Aung San Suu Kyi is yet to complete her detention period and that could still be extended to another six months. The junta announced that on humanitarian grounds and as she is the daughter of General Aung San, Burma’s Independence architect, they have terminated her house arrest period.
Meanwhile, the Nobel Peace Laureate is still being kept under detention with the new excuse that she is currently facing trial.
Saturday, July 18, 2009
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