Burma's Aung San Suu Kyi freed after 15 years house arrest
Update: Saturday 13th November
The military authorities in Burma have released the pro-democracy leader, Aung San Suu Kyi.
She has appeared in front of a crowd of her supporters who rushed to her house in Rangoon when nearby barricades were removed by the security forces.
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Reports are coming out of Burma that the country's leading generals are believed to have sanctioned the release of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi who has spent 15 of the last 21 years under house arrest.
It's been a week full of rumours and speculation if and when the Nobel Peace Prize winner will be released, but with police activity growing outside her home in Rangoon and agency reports of government officials making 'necessary security preparations', it is believed she could be free this weekend.
Her sentence officially ends tomorrow: "There is no law to hold her for another day. Her detention period expires on Saturday and she will be released," her lawyer, Nyan Win, told reporters. "They should release her for the country."
Earlier this week, he said Ms Suu Kyi would "not accept a limited release". "[It] must be unconditional. As we all know, she never accepted limited freedom in the past," he added.
She was originally due to be released last year, but a case involving an American who swam across Inya Lake to her home, claiming he was on a mission to save her, prompted the latest 18-month detention.
Her supporters, who have been publicly counting down the days to the end of her current term of house arrest, have been gathering at the headquarters of her political party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), in anticipation of her release.
Reports of the democracy icon's release come after a state media announcement on Thursday that the pro-junta political party had secured a majority in both houses of Parliament in last Sunday's elections.
The partial results showed the Union Solidarity and Development Party had won 190 of 219 constituencies reported in the 330-seat Lower House and 95 of 107 seats in the 168-seat Upper House.
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ayipis
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the United Nations had done absolutely NOTHING for this woman
- 1 year ago
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ayipis
