Suu Kyi Sentenced By Court To A 3 Years Prison

Tuesday, August 11, 2009 at 3:22 pm

YANGON: A Myanmar court has found pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kui guilty of violating her house arrest, but the head of the military-ruled country says she can serve out a 1 1/2-year sentence under house arrest.

The court initially sentenced Suu Kyi on Tuesday to a three-year prison term. But after a five-minute recess, the country’s home minister entered the courtroom and read aloud a special order from junta chief Than Shwe.

The order said Than Shwe was cutting the sentence in half to 1 1/2 years and that it could be served under house arrest.

Suu Kyi has been in detention for 14 of the last 20 years, mostly under house arrest.

The court also sentenced American John Yettaw to seven years in prison, including four years at hard labor, for entering pro-democracy leader’s home while she was under house arrest.

The 53-year-old Yettaw was found guilty Tuesday of violating the terms of Suu Kyi’s detention by swimming to her lakeside home uninvited and staying for two days.

The court sentenced Yettaw to three years in prison for breaching Suu Kyi’s house arrest, three years in prison with hard labor for an immigration violation and another year in jail with hard labor for swimming in a restricted zone.

It was not clear if the prison terms would be served concurrently.