(RTTNews) - The Supreme Court in military-ruled Myanmar has allowed the detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi to submit a "special appeal" for her unconditional release from house arrest in Yangon, after similar appeals lodged earlier were rejected twice by military courts.
According to her lawyers, the court has not set any date to hear arguments on the admissibility of the petition, expected to be the last opportunity to seek her release ahead of the junta-promised elections later this year.
Nyan Win, her political associate and lawyer, said Thursday from Yangon the petition was based on Suu Kyi's innocence and the prosecution's failure to produce clinching evidence during the trial last year.
The latest appeal came just days after Kurt Campbell, U.S. assistant secretary for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, met with Suu Kyi in Yangon and expressed concern about election preparations in Myanmar, under military rule since 1962.
The Nobel Peace laureate was found "guilty" of violating the mandatory restrictions during her previous term of house arrest after an American national swam to her lakeside home without her knowledge. Upon her being sentenced to rigorous imprisonment, the junta changed that to a new term of house arrest.
Suu Kyi's current house arrest, which bars her from being either a member or leader of a political party, and the "undemocratic" 2008 Constitution, which would serve as the framework for these polls, has compelled her National League for Democracy (NLD) to opt out of the forthcoming elections.
Meanwhile, Htin Kyaw, a Burmese activist jailed for 12 years and six months for his lead role in the 2007 demonstrations in Yangon against spiraling essential commodity prices, supported the decision taken by Suu Kyi and the NLD not to contest the elections.
Myanmar, a member of the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN), has been under severe pressure from the other member-nations of the group for repeatedly denying the pro-democracy icon her political rights and for having kept her imprisoned for two decades on flimsy political charges.
Source :http://www.quote.com/news/story.action?id=RTT005140051000022
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