Yangon: The trial of Myanmar Opposition Leader Aung San Suu Kyi resumed on Friday amid tight security with a defence witness scheduled to testify.
Lawyer and member of Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) party, Khin Moe Moe, entered the court at Insein Prison on Friday morning to testify on Suu Kyi's behalf. Police security was tight around the prison, witnesses said.
She was one of two witnesses permitted to testify for the defence while prosecutors were allowed 14 witnesses.
Suu Kyi's defence team met with the jailed Nobel Peace Prize laureate on Wednesday to brief her on the trial.
"Daw (Mrs) Aung San Suu Kyi is fully prepared for whatever happens at the trial," one of her lawyers, Nyan Win, said after the briefing.
Nyan - who is also the official spokesperson of NLD - informed Suu Kyi that UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon had been denied a meeting with her by Myanmar's Military Junta during his brief trip to Myanmar on July 3 to July 4.
"She made no remark on that," Nyan said.
Myanmar's military regime refused Ban's request to meet Suu Kyi on the grounds that she was currently on trial and such a visit might prejudice the judiciary.
The excuse was deemed ridiculous because it is well-known that Myanmar's judiciary does not operate independently of the Junta.
Ban said he was "very disappointed" by the refusal and described it as a "missed opportunity" for the regime.
Khin Moe Moe was originally scheduled to testify on July 3, but the court session was postponed.
A special court was set up at Insein Prison to try Suu Kyi, beginning on May 11, for breaking the terms of her detention by allegedly permitting US National John William Yettaw to swim to her lake side home-cum-prison on May 3 and stay until May 5.
Critics have accused the Military Junta of using the case as a pretext to keep Suu Kyi in jail during a politically sensitive period leading up to a general election planned for 2010.
That election would be the first since Suu Kyi's NLD won the 1990 general election by a landslide. It has, however, been blocked from power by Myanmar's junta for the past 19 years.
Suu Kyi has spent 13 of the past 19 years in detention.
The new trial of Suu Kyi, whose most recent six-year sentence under house detention expired on May 27, has sparked a chorus of protests from world leaders and even statements of concern from its regional allies in the Association of South-East Asian Nations.
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