: Lawyers for Myanmar pro-democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi said Sunday they were preparing to open the defense case at her trial this week, as the junta looked set to face further pressure from the West.
The tribunal´s second week promises to be crucial, with European nations likely to push Asian countries for help at a meeting in Vietnam and Aung San Suu Kyi´s official period of house arrest due to expire.
The Nobel Peace Prize winner pleaded innocent Friday at the court in Yangon´s Insein prison, where she faces charges of breaching the terms of her house arrest after an eccentric American man swam to her lakeside home.
“We expect to begin our defense case this coming week,” Nyan Win, a spokesman for her National League for Democracy (NLD) party and also a member of her legal team, told AFP.
“Now we are preparing a witness list and are preparing what we need for tomorrow (Monday),” he said, adding that the prosecution was expected to call final witnesses early next week.
Nyan Win estimated it would take another two weeks for a verdict at the trial, which has provoked a storm of international outrage over the military regime´s treatment of Suu Kyi.
The opposition leader faces up to five years in jail if convicted. American intruder John Yettaw and two female assistants who live with Suu Kyi are also on trial.
The latest, six-year period of Suu Kyi´s house arrest is due to expire on Wednesday and the junta has not yet said whether it will extend it.
Wednesday is also the 19th anniversary of Myanmar´s last general elections, which Suu Kyi´s NLD won by a landslide although the ruling generals never allowed it to take power.
On Friday Nyan Win quoted Suu Kyi as saying: “I have no guilt as I didn´t commit any crime.”
The prosecution case centers on her allegedly allowing Yettaw, a former US military veteran, to stay at her home for two days after the bizarre incident earlier this month in which he swam to her home.
Yettaw has said in the trial that his motive for the stunt was that he wanted to warn Suu Kyi that she would be assassinated.
He brought a number of unusual objects to her house including two black shawls for Muslim women and a copy of the “Book of Mormon”.
Myanmar´s ruling generals opened up the trial to journalists and diplomats on Wednesday for a day, in an apparent concession to international criticism of the trial, but then put the proceedings back behind closed doors.
The junta went on the offensive Friday, blaming “anti-government elements” for Yettaw´s visit and alleging he was a “secret agent or her boyfriend”.
Differences over how to handle the Myanmar regime are expected to dominate a meeting of European and Asian foreign ministers in Hanoi starting on Monday.
EU nations have talked of boosting their sanctions against Yangon, but while Myanmar´s partners in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations have issued a rare expression of “grave concern” they have ruled out further action.
Myanmar´s giant neighbors China and India have been silent on the trial.