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Aung San Suu Kyi Prepares for Five Years in Prison
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by Alyzee | July 30, 2009 at 10:36 am
61 views | 12 Recommendations | 3 comments
Novel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi is charged with violating the terms of her house arrest. Suu Kyi and two housemates are accused of housing American John Yettaw, who swam across a lake to her compound in early May. Yettaw is reported to be a rather eccentric man who claims that he had a vision of Suu Kyi being assassinated, according to The Guardian.
Her lawyers argue the law she is being charged under belonged to a constitution that was abolished 25 years ago, and blame security guards for failing to apprehend Yettaw. She told the court she had pleaded with him to leave but relented after he claimed he was too unwell to swim back.
Aung Sang Suu Kyi may face 5 years in prison because of the incident, over which aroused much anger against the recklessness of Yettaw. The laws that Suu Kyi has allegedly broken belong to a constitution abolished 25 years ago, according to the BBC. International calls asking for her release have been ignored.
Analysts say the Burmese junta may use this trial to make sure the popular pro-democracy leader is still in detention during elections planned for early next year.
That this is a gross miscarriage of justice, or a farce, is not beyond anyone's imagination, in fact it is highly likely. Ms. Suu Kyi will probably bear it with the same quiet fortitude she has borne 13 years of house arrest. It is hard to imagine her doing anything else.
Suu Kyi expects to be sentenced to 5 years in prison, and has already started to put together a reading list to keep her mind active during that time. Her reading list includes the biography of Winston Churchill, French history books and books on Buddhism in Burmese.
"She has said that if she has to stay in prison for a long time, she has only one thing to do, and that is reading," her lawyer, Nyan Win, said. He added, however, that he hoped she would be released "according to the law".
Aung San Suu Kyi's verdict is set to be announced this Friday.
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Most RecentMost Recommended Comments (3)
at 17:30 on July 30th, 2009
This is so infuriating.
We should invade Burma rather then have invaded Iraq under falls pretend.
The five UN veto powers are messing up the UN or this would not even be possible to still go on.
at 17:35 on July 30th, 2009
Paschen, sneak some build-a-nuke stuff into Burma and we can invade.
This cadre of military guys running the country are a real case.
at 17:41 on July 30th, 2009
They may already have it now that they are best friends with North Korea. :)