Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Legal News Blogs -> JURIST - The Paper Chase

Legal News

: JURIST - The Paper Chase

American sentenced with Suu Kyi being released after US senator visits Myanmar

By Bernard Hibbitts (editor) and University of Pittsburgh School of Law students.

[JURIST] American citizen William Yettaw, sentenced for swimming to and staying in the home of Myanmar opposition pro-democracy advocate Aung San Suu Kyi, is expected to be released on Sunday, according to an announcement on Saturday following a closed meeting between US Senator Jim Webb (R-VA) and Myanmar's Senior General Than Shwe on Saturday. Webb, who chairs the Senate Subcommittee on East Asian and Pacific Affairs, is the first senior American official to visit Myanmar in over ten years,becoming the highest ranking official who has met with the head of Myanmar's junta. The senator's request for Suu Kyi's release did not elicit any committment from the Than Shwe. Earlier this week, Suu Kyi and American John Yettaw were convicted of violating state security laws after Suu Kyi, who was under house arrest, allowed Yettaw to stay in her home after he swam across a lake to visit her. Suu Kyi was sentenced to 18 more months of house arrest, and Yettaw was sentenced to seven years in prison, with four years of hard labor. The verdict has widely criticized by world leaders and human rights groups, with many calling for her immediate release. Suu Kyi, a prominent human rights activist, has spent 12 of the past 18 years in prison or under house arrest for alleged violations of an anti-subversion law.

Full post as published by JURIST - The Paper Chase on August 15, 2009 (boomark / email).