YANGON - Lawyers for Myanmar democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi went to court Wednesday to challenge a ban preventing her from calling three out of four defence witnesses at her internationally condemned trial.

The Nobel laureate's legal team said the refusal of judges to allow the witnesses to testify at the closed prison trial showed that the military regime's case against her was one-sided.

The opposition leader faces up to five years in jail on charges of breaching the conditions of her house arrest after a bizarre incident in which an American man, John Yettaw, swam to her lakeside home in May.

"We will give our statement to the Yangon divisional court asking that they should accept our three defence witnesses," Nyan Win, the spokesman for Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD), told AFP.

"According to the law they should accept this revision," said Nyan Win, who is also one of her defence lawyers.

The three barred witnesses were Tin Oo, a journalist who was Myanmar's longest serving prisoner until his release in September, detained deputy NLD chief Win Tin and lawyer Khin Moe Moe.

Nyan Win said that their preparations for final arguments in the case, which are due on Friday, were almost finished.
"We are satisfied with our preparations," he said.

Myanmar's ruling junta has kept Aung San Suu Kyi in detention for 13 of the last 19 years, and the latest attempt to lock her up has provoked international outrage.

US President Barack Obama has described the proceedings inside Yangon's notorious Insein Prison as a "show trial," while Myanmar's usually reticent Asian neighbours have expressed strong concerns.

Kyi Win, her main lawyer, said Tuesday that the prosecution had called 14 witnesses against one for the defence, adding: "If you look at the numbers it is one-sided, and that is why we have made this application."

Myanmar's ruling generals say the case is an internal matter, accusing Aung San Suu Kyi of covering up Yettaw's visit and suggesting that the incident was planned by "internal and external anti-government elements."

Yettaw's lawyer said Tuesday that the former US military veteran did not take orders or money from outside organisations before swimming across the lake - a feat he managed using a pair of home-made flippers.

He said that Yettaw, a devout Mormon, was a "sincere and pious" person who believed God had told him to warn her and the government after he had a vision that she would be assassinated.

Legal and rights experts told a panel discussion in Bangkok that the international community should use the global outrage about the trial to push for a UN inquiry over possible crimes against humanity in Myanmar.

The case has provided a "window of opportunity" to investigate Myanmar's junta, said Tyler Giannini of Harvard Law School. Giannini co-authored a report in May calling for the UN Security Council to follow the precedent of Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia, where inquiries led to special tribunals and prosecutions.

"The trial of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi is putting additional scrutiny on Burma right now and really highlighting the lack of judicial independence," Giannini said at the Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand late Tuesday.

He said that with political unity there was a "very good chance... that (UN) member states will consider it seriously and it has a chance to get on the agenda in the fairly near future because of this current scrutiny."

Myanmar has been ruled by the military in 1962. The army refused to recognise elections won by the NLD in 1990 and crushed mass protests in 1988 and 2007. -AFP