Myanmar opposition icon Aung San Suu Kyi went on trial amid tight security at a notorious prison yesterday, facing up to five more years in detention on charges of harboring a US man who swam to her home.
Dozens of supporters of the ailing Nobel Peace Prize laureate gathered near Insein prison outside Yangon as the hearing got under way, one of whom was arrested by the phalanx of riot police posted behind barbed wire blockades.
The ruling junta pushed ahead with the trial of the 63-year-old despite the threat of tougher sanctions from the EU over the charges against her, which allege that she violated the terms of her house arrest.
“We can definitely win according to the law. She didn’t do anything wrong,” Nyan Win, a spokesman for Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) party, said after the court was adjourned.
Lawyers for the pro-democracy leader opened the proceedings with an application for the trial to be held in open court, which the judges rejected, Nyan Win said.
The court then heard from the first of an expected 22 witnesses, police Colonel Zaw Min Aung, who filed the original complaint against the pro-democracy leader after the incident involving the US man, Nyan Win said.
He quoted the policeman as saying that Aung San Suu Kyi had “violated the personal restrictions on her” by having contact with John Yettaw, the man who swam across a lake to her home earlier this month.
Aung San Suu Kyi did not speak during the hearing, he said.
But she was “alert and wanted to tell friends that she is in good health,” he said.
Her latest six-year period of detention was due to expire next Wednesday, but Yettaw’s visit has apparently provided the junta with the ammunition they need to extend her detention past next year’s polls.
Yettaw, 53, reportedly described as a harmless eccentric by relatives in the US, also appeared at the trial along with two aides of Aung San Suu Kyi. A US consular official attended the hearing, Nyan Win said.
Security forces barred the ambassadors of Britain, France, Germany and Italy from the jail as they attempted to gain entry to the court, a Western diplomat said.
Aung San Suu Kyi’s lawyer, Kyi Win, said that she would protest her innocence.
“She just felt sorry for this man [Yettaw] as he had leg cramps after he swam across the lake. That’s why she allowed him to stay,” Kyi Win said.
Several dozen NLD members gathered outside the security cordon at the jail, including Win Tin, who was Myanmar’s longest serving political prisoner until his release in September, witnesses said.
The EU said yesterday it would consider boosting its sanctions against the Myanmar regime because of the trial.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique