International   

Verdict in Suu Kyi trial put off

— PHOTO: AP

A protest in Tokyo on Friday.

SINGAPORE: The judgment in a controversial case against Myanmar’s renowned pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi was on Friday put off until August 11. A two-judge bench of the trial court, located within the premises of a high-security prison in Yangon, had set Friday for the verdict.

Ms. Suu Kyi (64) has been tried over the allegation that she violated the terms of her detention early in May. She was accused of extending hospitality to a male American who, it was said, swam undetected to her lakeside residence.

While her house arrest ended on May 27, she is now being held in house in the Insein Prison in Yangon. Ms. Suu Kyi’s lawyer and NLD leader Nyan Win, who attended Friday’s proceedings, told The Hindu from Yangon that the bench cited reasons for “adjournment” of the case. He quoted the judges as having said the case bristled with “legal problems” which required to be decided.

Ms. Suu Kyi’s defence lawyers, led by Kyi Win, had said, in their concluding arguments, that the 1974 Constitution, which the prosecution was relying on, could not be invoked now.

It was submitted that the 1974 “socialist” statute had lapsed in the wake of the pro-democracy movement of the late-1980s which led to a general election and the NLD’s triumph. In the current case, the prosecution argued that Ms. Suu Kyi breached the law of limitations on individual freedom under the 1974 Constitution.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

Colombo eases fishing curbs
Verdict in Suu Kyi trial put off
A cordial re-union at White House

Copyright © 2009, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu