Fri 31 Jul 2009
Filed under: News,Regional
Dozens of Filipino activists protested Friday outside the Myanmar embassy in the Philippine capital and demanded the immediate release of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
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The mostly women activists held the protest as they awaited a court verdict on Suu Kyi on the charge of breaking the terms of her house arrest. The verdict in Myanmar, which is also known as Burma, was later postponed for a week and a half.
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The protestors wore photos of Suu Kyi and carried a large banner that read, “A sentence to Aung San Suu Kyi is a sentence to democracy in Burma.”
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“Daw Aung San Suu Kyi is an icon of the struggle for freedom and democracy in Burma,” the Free Burma Coalition said a statement. “She is the only hope for change. She must be released because she is not guilty of anything except fighting for the rights and freedoms of the people of Burma.”
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At the end of the protest rally, some activists posed inside a mock prison cell holding photos of a smiling Suu Kyi.
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A Myanmar court on Friday postponed until August 11 its verdict on Suu Kyi and three others accused of breaking the terms of her house arrest by allowing a US national to swim to her home-cum-prison on May 3 and stay uninvited until the night of May 5.
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The Nobel Peace Prize laureate has spent 14 of the past 20 years under house detention.
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If found guilty of breaking the terms of her detention, which officially ended on May 27, Suu Kyi faces a minimum jail sentence of three years.