A day after democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi murmured in court that the verdict in her trial was already “painfully obvious,” Myanmar’s state-run media warned yesterday that any predictions of the outcome would amount to contempt of court.
On Tuesday, lawyers gave their closing arguments in the high-profile proceedings against Suu Kyi, who is accused of violating the terms of her house arrest by harboring an American who swam uninvited to her lakeside home and stayed for two days. The 64-year-old Nobel Peace laureate faces a jail term of five years.
She is widely expected to be convicted, although there has been speculation she may serve her sentence under house arrest rather than in jail.
Also being tried on the same charges are American John William Yettaw, 53, of Falcon, Missouri, and two female members of Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party who were her sole companions under house arrest.
The New Light of Myanmar, a mouthpiece of the military regime, said “biased writings about the trial in progress, writings about which side will win or lose in that trial, or predicting possibility of the defendants’ convictions amount to contempt of court.”
“Everyone who breaches the law shall face a lawsuit and obey the court decision,” the report said.
Suu Kyi, in turn, has complained through her lawyer that articles in the state-run press — which have stressed that the trial did not involve politics but simply a breach of the law — amounted to influencing the court’s decision.
The trial, which began in May, has drawn international condemnation from rights activists, world leaders and celebrities who have called for her immediate release. On Tuesday, President Barack Obama renewed sanctions against the junta, including a ban on imports of jade and other gems from Myanmar.
But neither outside pressure nor the possibility of closer ties with the West has deterred the ruling junta, which appeared determined to find her guilty and keep her behind bars through elections planned for next year.
The Thai government said yesterday that Myanmar had asked Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva to postpone a trip scheduled tomorrow. Thai government spokesman Panitan Wattanayagorn said the planned trip coincided with the court verdict but did not elaborate.
Judge Thaung Nyunt said on Tuesday that the court would make a ruling today, according to defense attorney Nyan Win. The lawyer said he preferred not to speculate on the outcome, but that he had “never seen any defendant in a political case [in Myanmar] being set free.”
He did not directly say Suu Kyi’s trial was politically motivated.
Suu Kyi — who has been in detention for 14 of the past 20 years — told diplomats attending the court session that she was not optimistic.
“I’m afraid the verdict will be painfully obvious,” Suu Kyi said, according to several diplomats who heard her comments in court.
People with missing teeth might be able to grow new ones, said Japanese dentists, who are testing a pioneering drug they hope will offer an alternative to dentures and implants. Unlike reptiles and fish, which usually replace their fangs on a regular basis, it is widely accepted that humans and most other mammals only grow two sets of teeth. However, hidden underneath our gums are the dormant buds of a third generation, said Katsu Takahashi, head of oral surgery at the Medical Research Institute Kitano Hospital in Osaka, Japan. His team launched clinical trials at Kyoto University Hospital in October, administering an experimental
IVY LEAGUE GRADUATE: Suspect Luigi Nicholas Mangione, whose grandfather was a self-made real-estate developer and philanthropist, had a life of privilege The man charged with murder in the killing of the CEO of UnitedHealthcare made it clear he was not going to make things easy on authorities, shouting unintelligibly and writhing in the grip of sheriff’s deputies as he was led into court and then objecting to being brought to New York to face trial. The displays of resistance on Tuesday were not expected to significantly delay legal proceedings for Luigi Nicholas Mangione, who was charged in last week’s Manhattan killing of Brian Thompson, the leader of the US’ largest medical insurance company. Little new information has come out about motivation,
‘MONSTROUS CRIME’: The killings were overseen by a powerful gang leader who was convinced his son’s illness was caused by voodoo practitioners, a civil organization said Nearly 200 people in Haiti were killed in brutal weekend violence reportedly orchestrated against voodoo practitioners, with the government on Monday condemning a massacre of “unbearable cruelty.” The killings in the capital, Port-au-Prince, were overseen by a powerful gang leader convinced that his son’s illness was caused by followers of the religion, the civil organization the Committee for Peace and Development (CPD) said. It was the latest act of extreme violence by powerful gangs that control most of the capital in the impoverished Caribbean country mired for decades in political instability, natural disasters and other woes. “He decided to cruelly punish all
NOTORIOUS JAIL: Even from a distance, prisoners maimed by torture, weakened by illness and emaciated by hunger, could be distinguished Armed men broke the bolts on the cell and the prisoners crept out: haggard, bewildered and scarcely believing that their years of torment in Syria’s most brutal jail were over. “What has happened?” asked one prisoner after another. “You are free, come out. It is over,” cried the voice of a man filming them on his telephone. “Bashar has gone. We have crushed him.” The dramatic liberation of Saydnaya prison came hours after rebels took the nearby capital, Damascus, having sent former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad fleeing after more than 13 years of civil war. In the video, dozens of
RSS