Myanmar opposition leader meets with lawyers to discuss appeal

(Earth Times) Detained Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi was allowed a rare meeting with her lawyers Tuesday to discuss her appeal, government sources said. The country's ruling military junta allowed her legal team of Kyi Win, Nyan Win, Hla Myo Myint and Khin Htay Kywe to visit her house-cum-prison in Yangon, where Suu Kyi has been kept under detention for 14 of the past 20 years.

The 64-year-old Nobel Peace Prize laureate last met with her legal team on November 26 when they disclosed that the Supreme Court had decided to hear Suu Kyi's request for an appeal against her recent sentence of 18 months of detention for allowing an uninvited US national to visit her home in May.

The Supreme Court was due to decide on December 21 whether to hear Suu Kyi's appeal.

She was originally sentenced to three years in jail with hard labour for allowing American John Yettaw to swim to her house on Inya Lake in May, an act that was ruled a breach of her terms of imprisonment. The sentence was commuted to 18 months of house arrest.

Many analysts said Yettaw's bizarre swim to Suu Kyi's home in early May to warn her of an assassination attempt he dreamed about was an unexpected gift to the ruling generals because her previous period of detention was about to expire.

Her latest sentence should keep her out of circulation next year when the military plans to hold the first general election since 1990.

Yettaw, 53, was sentenced to seven years in jail but was soon allowed to leave the country.

The United States and many Western countries have warned the junta that if the upcoming election is to be seen as credible, Suu Kyi and the country's other political prisoners should be released beforehand.

Filed Under: Burma