Appeal against Suu Kyi’s Detention Handed in at Naypyidaw

By THE IRRAWADDY

A legal representative of Burma’s detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi handed in to the military government in Naypyidaw on Wednesday a formal appeal against the latest extension of her house arrest.

Suu Kyi’s lawyer, Kyi Win, told The Irrawaddy on Thursday that the appeal had been handed in personally by his assistant, Hla Myo Myint.

The government had given no indication when the appeal would be heard in court, Kyi Win said. “But we are hoping for a positive outcome.”

Suu Kyi’s latest five-year term of house arrest was extended in May for a further year—illegally, according to Kyi Win, because article 10 (b) of the Burmese State Protection Law 1975 stipulates that a person judged to be a “threat to the sovereignty and security of the State and the peace of the people” can only be detained for up to five years.

Suu Kyi has spent more than 13 years of the past 19 years confined to her Rangoon home.

Kyi Win said he planned to meet Suu Kyi soon to discuss the appeal.

Suu Kyi has reportedly been in poor health recently. She refused for about one month to accept deliveries of food and other household supplies at her home in what was seen as a protest against her continuing house arrest. Last week, she was visited by an eye specialist, Dr Kan Nyunt, and her personal physician, Dr Tin Myo Win.

At a Geneva press conference earlier this month, a UN High Commissioner for Human Rights official, Navanethem Pillay, expressed concern about Suu Kyi’s continuing detention and urged the regime to free her and all other political prisoners.

Suu Kyi had “in fact served a sentence that far exceeds that served by many hardened criminals,” Pillay said.

Pillay welcomed the recent release of seven political prisoners, but said it was a very small step when more than 2,000 political activists were still detained. “I urge the government to release them all as soon as possible,” she said.