Suu Kyi faces five years in jail after 'uninvited visit' from American

Yangon (Myanmar), May 15 (ANI): Burma's opposition leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, faces a five-year prison sentence after the military regime accused her of breaking the terms of her house arrest.

The Nobel Laureate, whose party won a sweeping victory in Burma's last democratic election in 1990, was taken from her lakeside home and driven to Insein prison in Rangoon in an armoured convoy, reports The Telegraph.

According to her lawyer, Suu Kyi faces trial and a possible jail sentence because of the unauthorised visit of an American man who swam across a lake to reach her home.

On May 3, John Yettaw, a 53-year-old psychology student and Vietnam veteran from Missouri, made his way across the lake and reportedly stayed at her house for two days. He was only detected and arrested as he left by the same route on May 5.

Under one of the many laws used by Burma's military rulers to control the population, foreigners are banned from staying in the homes of local people and, in any event, all house guests who are not relatives must be registered with the authorities.

Yettaw's uninvited visit - which Mrs Suu Kyi appears not to have approved in any way - has a convenient outcome for the regime. The opposition leader has spent 13 of the last 19 years under house arrest and her current term of detention expires on May 27.

Under Burmese law, it cannot be extended again. (ANI)