Myanmar puts Suu Kyi on trial

Agence France-Presse

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Dozens of supporters of the ailing Nobel Prize laureate gathered near Insein prison outside Yangon as the hearing got under way, one of whom was arrested by the phalanx of riot police posted behind barbed wire blockades. The ruling junta pushed ahead with the trial of the 63-year-old despite the threat of tougher sanctions from the European Union over the charges against her, which allege that she violated the terms of her house arrest.

"We can definitely win according to the law. She didn't do anything wrong," Nyan Win, a spokesman for Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party, said after the court was adjourned. Lawyers for the pro-democracy leader opened the proceedings with an application for the trial to be held in open court, which the judges rejected, Nyan Win said.

The court then heard from the first of an expected 22 witnesses, police colonel Zaw Min Aung, who filed the original complaint against the pro-democracy leader after the incident involving the American man, he added. Nyan Win quoted the policeman as saying that Aung San Suu Kyi had "violated the personal restrictions on her" by having contact with John Yettaw.