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Burma's Aung San Suu Kyi Meets with Lawyers


Aung San Suu Kyi's lawyer says Burmese military authorities allowed the detained opposition leader to meet with her defense team for two hours Saturday in Rangoon's notorious Insein prison.

Attorney Kyi Win told VOA Burmese Service that the Nobel peace laureate is in good health.

A spokesman for her National League for Democracy Party, Nyan Win, also said the court has postponed final arguments in Aung San Suu Kyi's trial from next Monday to next Friday. He said no reasons were given for the delay.

Aung San Suu Kyi is on trial for allegedly violating the terms of her house arrest.

U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, speaking in Singapore Saturday, called on Burma's military government to release the pro-democracy leader and to begin a dialogue with the opposition.

Saturday marks the sixth anniversary of a deadly attack on a motorcade carrying Aung San Suu Kyi, an event known as the Depayin massacre.

The trial against Aung San Suu Kyi stems from a visit by an intruder who swam to her lakeside home in early May and stayed overnight.

The American intruder, John Yettaw, is also on trial.

If convicted, Aung San Suu Kyi could be sentenced to a prison term of up to five years. She has spent 13 of the past 19 years under house arrest.

The sole defense witness allowed to testify argued in court Thursday that it was the job of government guards outside Aung San Suu Kyi's home to keep intruders out.

Burma's military government lashed out Thursday at foreign critics of the trial. Deputy foreign minister Maung Myint said during a Europe-Asia summit in Cambodia that the trial is an internal legal issue, not linked to politics or human rights.

The international community has condemned the trial as a pretext to extend the opposition leader's house arrest and bar her from elections next year.


Some information for this report was provided by AFP and Reuters.

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