New Delhi (Mizzima news) – An “open and fair” trial for Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and her two aides has been demanded of the Burmese military junta by five United Nations Independent Human Rights Experts on Tuesday.
Leandro Despouy, the Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers in a statement said, “So far, the trial of Aung San Suu Kyi and her aides has been marred by flagrant violations of substantive and procedural rights.”
Despouy who, pointed to the fact that, till date, the trial has mostly been conducted behind closed doors and that the media has been prevented from speaking to the defence lawyers, said “Transparency in the administration of justice is a pre-requisite of any State governed by the rule of law.”
Frank La Rue, the Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Opinion and Expression said, “the national and international media should be granted full access to the trial.”
The five UN experts are the Chairperson-Rapporteur of the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, Ms. Manuela Carmena Castrilo; the Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers, Mr. Leandro Despouy; the Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human rights in Myanmar, Mr. Tomas Ojea Quintana; the Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human rights Defenders, Ms. Margaret Sekaggya; and the Special Rapporteur on the Promotion and Protection of the Right to Freedom of Opinion and Expression, Mr. Frank La Rue.
The call by the rights experts echoes the international outcry over the Burmese junta’s trial of Nobel Peace Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi. The junta is currently conducting a trial on charges of violating her detention law for “harbouring” an American citizen in her lakeside house in early May.
The trial, conducted in the special court inside the notorious Insein prison in Rangoon, has been screened from the public. The authorities have only allowed selected journalists and foreign diplomats into the court room twice.
Opposition members including Aung San Suu Kyi’s party the National League for Democracy have said the case against her was trumped-up to continue detaining her and to keep her out of the purview of the junta’s proposed 2010 general elections.
The Burmese pro-democracy leader has spent more than 13 of the past 19 years under house arrest but her latest incarceration period ended in May. The junta also announced that they have lifted the restriction on her considering she is the daughter of General Aung San, Burma’s Independence architect.
Her lawyer and spokesperson of the NLD, Nyan Win said, “Technically, her detention period is over and she should be free but the authorities have shifted her detention from her home to the Insein prison.”
Both Nyan Win and Kyi Win, her primary lawyers, have told Mizzima that the trial in Insein prison court was not open and termed the access of selected journalists and foreign diplomats as a “half-open court.”
