An American on trial for secretly entering the house of Burmese democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi has been hospitalized after suffering seizures, hospital sources said yesterday.
John Yettaw, 53, was admitted to Yangon’s main hospital on Monday, but his condition is improving, said the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals in the military-run nation.
Yettaw faces up to five years in prison on charges he helped violate the terms of Aung San Suu Kyi’s house arrest by swimming uninvited to her lakeside residence and staying two nights.
A court is to deliver a verdict next week in the case, which charges Aung San Suu Kyi with violating the terms of her detention. The 64-year-old Nobel Peace Prize laureate could also be imprisoned for five years along with two companions who resided with her.
Yettaw, of Falcon, Missouri, testified that he swam to Aung San Suu Kyi’s house to warn her that he had had a vision that she would be assassinated.
He reportedly suffers from epilepsy, diabetes and other health problems, including post traumatic stress disorder from his time in the US military. His lawyer Khin Maung Oo said earlier that Yettaw had been kept in the hospital of Insein prison, so authorities could monitor his health.
US embassy spokesman Richard Mei said that the embassy’s consular officer, Colin Furst, visited Yettaw at the hospital on Monday morning. He would not comment on Yettaw’s condition.
While there has been little speculation about the court’s verdict in Yettaw’s case, many diplomats expect Aung San Suu Kyi to be found guilty and she herself has said the court’s decision was already “painfully obvious.”
Aung San Suu Kyi’s full testimony in the closed-door trial was released on Monday for the first time by the National League for Democracy.
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