A court in Burma rejected most of Aung San Suu Kyi's defence witnesses today, the latest move critics said was aimed at sabotaging her defence in a trial that could see her jailed for five years.
The court allowed only one of four witnesses requested by Suu Kyi's defence team, advocate Kyi Win, who will testify tomorrow when the trial resumes.
"It is very unfair," Nyan Win, one of Mr Suu Kyi's lawyers, said after today's closed session inside Yangon's Insein prison.
Critics say the trial is a charade to keep the charismatic National League for Democracy (NLD) leader in detention during the junta's promised 2010 election. Opponents say the poll will entrench military power after nearly a half century of rule.
Today, the court rejected Win Tin, a senior member of Ms Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD), the party's vice-chairman Tin Oo, who has been under house arrest since 2003, and another lawyer from acting as defence witnesses.
Prosecutors were allowed 23 witnesses, but called only 14.
"If the trial goes this quickly, we can expect a verdict on Friday," Nyan Win said.
Ms Suu Kyi (63) is accused of breaking the terms of her house arrest by allowing an uninvited American intruder to stay for two days after he swam to her home on May 4th.
Activists say a guilty verdict is inevitable in a country where more than 2,000 political prisoners are behind bars and courts routinely bend the law to the suit the generals.
"It has been clear from the beginning that Aung San Suu Kyi would never get a fair trial," Debbie Stothard of the Alternative ASEAN Network on Burma, said.
The court gave no reason for rejecting the three witnesses.
"Their testimony would have exposed the lack of logic and rationality in these charges," Stothard said.
Ms Suu Kyi has denied the charges and, in a written statement to the court yesterday, blamed the incident at her home on a breach of security. She noted that no officials were held accountable.
"It is a one-side measure to take legal action against me. I hereby submit that I did not commit the offence alleged by the prosecutor," she said in the statement released by her party.
Earlier, about 250 NLD members gathered at the party's dilapidated headquarters to free birds and pray for Ms Suu Kyi. "We call for the immediate and unconditional release of all political prisoners," NLD member U Ohn Kyaing told the crowd as secret police watched nearby, cameras clicking.
Today marked the anniversary of the NLD's landslide election victory in 1990, which the generals ignored.
It was also the sixth year of Ms Suu Kyi's latest spell in detention. Authorities lifted her house arrest order today, but she remains in prison while awaiting a verdict.
Ms Suu Kyi has spent more than 13 of the past 19 years in some form of detention, mostly at her lakeside home under police guard, her phone line cut and visitors restricted.
In Washington, US President Barack Obama demanded her release "immediately and unconditionally".
"Aung San Suu Kyi's continued detention, isolation, and show trial based on spurious charges cast serious doubt on the Burmese regime's willingness to be a responsible member of the international community," Mr Obama said in a statement.
Burma's generals, the latest in an unbroken line of military rulers since 1962, have ignored the outcry, or sought to defuse it by twice allowing diplomats to observe the trial.
American John Yettaw, the 53-year-old man whose late-night swim across Inya Lake triggered the trial, testified for three hours today.
He said he had a "vision" that Suu Kyi was assassinated by "terrorists" and he wanted to warn her and the government.
"God sent me to warn her," Nyan Win quoted Mr Yettaw as saying several times during the session.
Ms Suu Kyi has denied any prior knowledge of Mr Yettaw's plans, but said she did not alert authorities for fear he would be arrested.
"My political colleagues are serving long prison terms without any consideration or protection from the law. I allowed him to take temporary refuge in my political belief that I will not push anyone into custody," her statement said.
"It does not matter who are the intruders or whatever their motive, I just did it out of my political belief." Yettaw, labelled a "crazy guy" by Burmese exiles, is charged with immigration violations, illegal swimming and breaking a security law that protects the state from "subversive elements".
Reuters