A lawyer for Burmese pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi says a court in the military-run nation will consider an appeal against a key ruling in her trial.
Aung San Suu Kyi's lawyers have asked the Rangoon court to readmit three defense witnesses previously disqualified from her trial on charges of violating her house arrest. The court only accepted one defense witness, while allowing prosecutors to call 14 witnesses.
Defense lawyer Nyan Win told VOA Burmese Service Wednesday the court will hear the appeal on the issue of defense witnesses on Friday. The court originally planned to hear the trial's closing arguments on that date.
Aung San Suu Kyi faces up to five years in jail if found guilty.
Prosecutors accuse her of violating house arrest by allowing an American man to stay at her lakeside Rangoon house after he swam there last month uninvited.
The 63-year-old Nobel Peace Prize winner already has spent 13 of the last 19 years in some form of detention.
The American, John Yettaw, also is on trial in the Rangoon court on charges of subverting state security, violating immigration laws and breaking a law against swimming in Inya Lake.
Yettaw's lawyer described him Wednesday as a religious man who believed God told him to warn Aung San Suu Kyi that terrorists planned to assassinate her.
Critics say the trial is a pretext for Burma's military rulers to keep the pro-democracy leader in detention through next year's election.
Burma's government accuses opposition forces of colluding with Yettaw to violate the terms of Aung San Suu Kyi's detention.
Members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have urged Burma's military to release her and more than 2,000 other political prisoners.
Burma has been under military rule since 1962. Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy won elections in 1990, but the military refused to recognize the results.
Some information for this report was provided by AFP, AP and Reuters.
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