Friday, 22 October 2010 19:01 Phanida
Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – Burma’s highest court on Wednesday agreed to hear final appeals from opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi regarding her continuing house arrest.
The appeal, also involving Suu Kyi’s two live-in assistants, will be heard next Friday, according to her lawyer.
“The court accepted the appeal yesterday [Wednesday]. It will be heard on October 29. I saw the notice at the court. We must now prepare the appeal,” Suu Kyi counsel Khin Htay Kywe told Mizzima. “After the hearing, the court will decide their cases within a week or two,”
Another of Suu Kyi’s lawyers, Kyi Win, also confirmed that her appeal would be heard by the five-member Supreme Court.
Nobel laureate Suu Kyi’s current sentence was set to expire on November 13. However, owing to the junta’s silence on the matter, her lawyers filed the appeal.
The 2008 constitution states its adoption replaces the statutes of the 1974 constitution. Therefore, contend her lawyers, the charges against the opposition leader should be dismissed.
Last August, Suu Kyi was charged under the 1975 State Protection Act and handed a three-year prison term for harbouring uninvited American John Yettaw for two days at her lakeside home. Khin Khin Win and her daughter, who lived with and cared for Burma’s democracy icon, were charged with abetting in the breach of law and were also given three-year terms. All sentences, however, were subsequently halved upon orders from Burmese junta leader Than Shwe.
The present appeal against the verdict is the third brought by Suu Kyi’s legal panel.
Recently relating her wish to communicate with younger generations via a Twitter account, Suu Kyi has been under house arrest for the better part of 15 years. Her party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), is boycotting next month’s election.
The Rangoon Central Supreme Court on October 6 also accepted a lawsuit challenging the junta’s dissolution of the NLD.
Friday, October 22, 2010
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Subscribe to email feed
