by Mizzima News
Tuesday, 11 August 2009 13:48
New Delhi (Mizzima) - Burma’s opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Tuesday was sentenced to 18 months delayed prison term and will be taken back to her lakeside home.
The court on Tuesday announced three years prison term for Aung San Suu Kyi. But Lt-Gen Maung Oo, Minister of Home Affairs arrived in the court and read out an order signed by the junta’s military supremo Snr. Gen Than Shwe dated August 10.
The order states that if the court convicts Aung San Suu Kyi, half the sentence should be commuted and could be freed after the 18 months if she proves that she has good moral behaviour. The order said, her sentenced is commuted because she is the daughter of General Aung San, the architect of Burma’s Independence from the British colonial.
“The verdict on Aung San Suu Kyi is that she will be taken back to her house and kept under restrictions for 18 months and during which if she proves good moral she could be freed at the end of 18 months,” her lawyer Nyan Win told Mizzima on Tuesday.
He said, she will be kept under restrictions but could write a request for her rights including receiving guests. She will also be allowed to watch television and read newspapers.
Similarly, her two live-in party mates, Khin Khin Win and Win Ma Ma, who were also sentenced to three years in prison with hard labour, were also reduced to 18 months of suspended sentence and will be send back along with Aung San Suu Kyi to her home.
If all the three abides by the law and prove good moral, they could be freed at the end of the 18 months suspended sentence, the order states.
John William Yettaw, the American man, however, was handed seven years in prison with hard labour, for abetting Aung San Suu Kyi to violate the terms of her house arrest and other charges including violation of the immigration law.
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Immediately after the court announced the verdict on Aung San Suu Kyi, Lt-Gen Maung Oo, Minister of Home Affairs arrived in the court and read out an order signed by the junta’s military supremo Snr. Gen Than Shwe dated August 10.
The order states that if the court convicts Aung San Suu Kyi, half the sentence should be commuted and if she proves that she has good moral behaviour she should be freed.
Aung San Suu Kyi will be taken back to her home and kept under restrictions. She will be allowed to accept guests but only with the prior permission of the authorities. For other rights she can send a written request, and she would be allowed to have a television and read newspapers.
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Diplomats, journalists allowed to witness Suu Kyi trial
by Mizzima News
Tuesday, 11 August 2009 14:24
New Delhi (Mizzima) – In an ostensible attempt at transparency the Burmese military junta on Tuesday allowed diplomats and journalists to be present at the court proceedings in Rangoon’s Insein prison, where a verdict will be pronounced on the ongoing trial of Aung San Suu Kyi and her three other co-defendants.
A Rangoon-based diplomat told Mizzima that several foreign missions based in Rangoon as well as a few others, who have arrived recently, along with journalists were given permission to be inside the court-room.
“I am not sure how many diplomats and journalists are there but I understand that several of them, even some diplomats who have recently come to Burma to witness the trial were allowed into the court today,” the diplomat told Mizzima.
The court has fixed Tuesday for pronouncing the verdict of the nearly three-month long trial of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who was charged for violating the security terms of her house arrest and ‘harbouring’ an American man who swam across a lake and entered her home in early May.
Aung San Suu Kyi, her two live-in party mates and the American man could face up to five years in prison, if found guilty.
Critics and opposition members have speculated that the court is likely to find Aung San Suu Kyi guilty, as the junta is determined to keep her away from the people as it prepares for a general election in 2010.
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
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