Sham Trial of Aung San Suu Kyi Begins

News coming out of Burma:

The state media have avoided making any mention of the arrest of Ms Suu Kyi, who is being detained in Insein Prison after the intruder, John Yettaw, secretly swam across a lake to the house where she has been held under house arrest for most of the past 20 years. Today US consular officials reportedly were allowed into the prison, where he too is to be charged with entering a restricted area and immigration offences.

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Her latest six-year term of house arrest was due to expire later this month, and Western governments have accused the Burmese regime of using the current case as a pretext for prolonging her detention. According to reports in the state media, Mr Yettaw, a Vietnam veteran and Mormon, swam across Inya Lake and spent two nights in Ms Suu Kyi’s compound, despite her pleas for him to leave. He was arrested by the security forces as he took the same route out again.

He made a similar visit last November, when he escaped detection. Ms Suu Kyi has been charged with violating the terms of her house arrest by not reporting the intruder to the authorities, as have her two friends and house keepers, Khin Khin Win, and her daughter Win Ma Ma.

Burmese courts invariably find for the government in political cases, and the authorities further stacked the odds in their favour on Saturday when one of her lawyers was struck off for “not abiding by professional ethics”.