World May. 26, 2009 - 04:08PM JST ( 0 )

YANGON —

Myanmar’s democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi was set to take the stand at her trial late Tuesday, as the junta defied international outrage and threatened to extend her house arrest even if she is not convicted.

Lawyers said the Nobel peace prize winner would declare her innocence of charges that she breached the terms of her six-year detention by assisting an American man who swam to her lakeside home this month.

She faces up to five more years in jail if convicted at the trial in Yangon’s notorious Insein prison, with critics accusing the military regime of trying to keep her locked up during elections due in 2010.

A top police officer said Tuesday that the junta had the right to extend her house arrest by six months, rejecting claims by her lawyers that Wednesday would officially mark the end of her latest six-year period in detention.

Brigadier General Myint Thein told reporters and diplomats invited to the hearing that the junta had considered freeing her but that the situation had “regretfully” changed since the incident involving U.S. national John Yettaw.

He said she had only officially been under house arrest for four years and six months, “so according to the law, authorities can restrict her another six months to reach five years with the permission of the government.”

Aung San Suu Kyi has been detained for 13 of the last 19 years, since the junta prevented her National League for Democracy (NLD) party from forming a government following its landslide victory in elections in 1990.

Wednesday is the 19th anniversary of the polls, the last multi-party vote to be held in Myanmar. The elections next year will be under a controversial constitution that enshrines a leading role for the army in government.

“She will be questioned by the judge (on Tuesday)... This was a surprise to us because we need more time to discuss the case with Daw Aung San Suu Kyi,” said NLD spokesman Nyan Win, who is also part of her defense team.

The defence will also call 82-year-old Tin Oo, the detained deputy leader of the NLD, as one of its witnesses, he said, adding that authorities had to allow him out of house arrest to testify “otherwise it will be one-sided.”

The trial has provoked a storm of international condemnation against Myanmar’s military, which has ruled the country with an iron fist since 1962.

More than 40 foreign ministers from Asia and Europe meeting in the Vietnamese capital Hanoi this week are to jointly call for the release of Aung San Suu Kyi, according to a draft statement.

“In light of the concern about the recent development to Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, ministers… called for the early release of those under detention and the lifting of restrictions placed on political parties,” said the draft statement.

Ministers have agreed to a text that “makes specific reference to the release of political prisoners and particularly Aung San Suu Kyi,” British junior foreign minister Bill Rammell said.

But Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt cautioned: “Things are moving forward but nothing is ready until it’s ready.”

During a meeting Monday with Myanmar Foreign Minister Nyan Win on the sidelines of the talks, the EU called for Aung San Suu Kyi’s immediate release.

In a rare move, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN ) last week expressed “grave concern” over her treatment. Myanmar’s neighbors normally prefer not to be seen as intervening in the affairs of their members.

Myanmar issued an angry rebuttal to the statement on Monday.

The junta is also trying Yettaw and two female aides who live with Aung San Suu Kyi in her house. Yettaw has said that he swam across a lake to the house to warn her of a vision he had that she would be assassinated.

Wire reports