By Aung Hla Tun
YANGON, Aug 11 (Reuters) - A court in army-ruled Myanmar on
Tuesday sentenced opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi guilty to 18
months in detention for violating an internal security law, a
ruling certain to anger the West and further isolate the regime.
The court sentenced her to three years in prison but that was
immediately reduced to a year-and-a-half on the orders of the
military government, which said she could serve the time in her
Yangon home.
A guilty verdict had been widely expected in a case critics
say was fabricated by the military regime to keep Suu Kyi out of
circulation ahead of a general election scheduled for next year.
The leader of the democracy movement in the former Burma has
already spent 14 of the past 20 years in detention of one sort or
another.
The charges stemmed from a mysterious incident in which an
American, John Yettaw, swam uninvited to her lakeside home in May
and stayed there for two days, which breached the terms of her
house arrest.
Yettaw was sentenced to seven years' hard labour in a
parallel trial on three charges, including immigration offences
and "swimming in a non-swimming area".
The hearings were held in Yangon's Insein Prison amid
heightened security, with least 2,000 security personnel in the
area, witnesses said.
State newspapers all ran the same commentary on Tuesday that
implicitly warned Suu Kyi's supporters not to cause trouble and
told outsiders not to meddle in Myanmar's affairs.
"The people who favour democracy do not want to see riots and
protests that can harm their goal," said the commentary in the
New Light of Myanmar and other newspapers.
"Anti-government groups inside and outside the nation and the
United States are accusing the government of deterring Aung San
Suu Kyi from standing for election," it added.
"The approved constitution and the forthcoming election law
will decide who will be entitled and who will not be entitled to
stand for election."
Critics say the trial has been trumped up by the military
government as a way of keeping Suu Kyi out of circulation in the
run-up to, and during, a multi-party election planned for 2010.
The prosecution's case was that Yettaw's two-day stay at Suu
Kyi's home, even though he was uninvited, meant she breached the
terms of her house arrest and violated an internal security law.
A verdict in the trial had been expected on Aug. 4 but the
judge adjourned the case until Tuesday, Aug. 11, after Yettaw
fell ill. [ID:nSP388486]
However, he was moved back to his prison cell shortly before
midnight on Monday, a hospital source said.
Yettaw, a Mormon, has told the court God sent him to warn Suu
Kyi she would be assassinated by "terrorists".
(Writing by Alan Raybould; Editing by Bill Tarrant)
Myanmar nationals living in Thailand shout slogans against the ruling military junta during a rally to mark the 21th anniversary of the "8888" demonstration, outside the Myanmar embassy in Bangkok August ...
