By Aung Hla Tun
YANGON (Reuters) - A Myanmar court rejected most of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi's witnesses on Wednesday, a move critics said was aimed at sabotaging her defence in a trial that could see her detained for five more years.
The court allowed only one of four witnesses requested by her defence team, advocate Kyi Win, who will testify on Thursday when the trial resumes of a woman detained by military rulers for more than 13 of the past 19 years.
"It is very unfair," Nyan Win, one of Suu Kyi's lawyers, said after the closed session inside Yangon's Insein prison.
Critics say the trial is a charade to keep the charismatic National League for Democracy (NLD) leader in detention during an election next year that they say will entrench the generals' power after nearly a half century of military rule.
The court barred senior NLD member Win Tin, the party's vice-chairman Tin Oo, who has been under house arrest since 2003, and another lawyer from acting as defence witnesses.
It gave no reason. By comparison, prosecutors were allowed 23 witnesses, but called only 14.
"If the trial goes this quickly, we can expect a verdict on Friday," Nyan Win said.
Suu Kyi, 63, is accused of breaking the terms of her house arrest by allowing an uninvited American intruder to stay for two days after he swam across a small lake to her home in the capital on May 4.
State-run MRTV television said on Wednesday the case against Suu Kyi would follow the "rule of law."
Activists say a guilty verdict is inevitable in a country where more than 2,000 political prisoners are behind bars and courts routinely bend the law to the suit the generals.
"It has been clear from the beginning that Aung San Suu Kyi would never get a fair trial," said Debbie Stothard of the Alternative ASEAN Network on Burma. Many organisations critical of the military rulers refer to Myanmar by its old name, Burma.
Suu Kyi has denied the charges and blamed the incident at her home on a security breach for which no officials were punished.
"The fact that I am the only party being prosecuted shows the partiality of the prosecution. I hereby submit my statement that I do not violate any crime as charged," she said in a written statement to the court which was released by the NLD.
"GOD SENT ME"
Earlier, about 250 NLD members gathered at the party's dilapidated headquarters to free birds and pray for her.
"We call for the immediate and unconditional release of all political prisoners," NLD member U Ohn Kyaing told the crowd as secret police watched nearby, cameras clicking.
Wednesday was the anniversary of the NLD's landslide election victory in 1990, which the generals ignored. It was also the sixth year of Suu Kyi's latest spell in detention.
Her house arrest was lifted on Tuesday, but she remains in prison while awaiting a verdict.
Suu Kyi has spent much of the last two decades in some form of detention, mostly at her lakeside home under police guard, her phone line cut and visitors restricted.
Myanmar's generals, the latest in an unbroken line of military rulers since 1962, have ignored the international outcry over her trial or sought to defuse it by twice allowing diplomats in as observers.
The American intruder, John Yettaw, whose swim across Inya Lake triggered the trial, testified for three hours on Wednesday.
He said he had a "vision" that Suu Kyi was assassinated by "terrorists" and he wanted to warn her and the government.
"God sent me to warn her," Nyan Win quoted him as saying.
Suu Kyi has denied any prior knowledge of his plans and said she did not alert authorities for fear he would be arrested.
"My political colleagues are serving long prison terms without any consideration or protection from the law. I allowed him to take temporary refuge in my political belief that I will not push anyone into custody," her statement said.
"It does not matter who are the intruders or whatever their motive, I just did it out of my political belief."
Yettaw, labelled a "crazy guy" by Burmese exiles, is charged with immigration violations, illegal swimming and breaking a security law that protects the state from "subversive elements."
Suu Kyi's two female housemates, Daw Khin Khin Win and Ma Win Ma Ma, are charged under the same security law.
(Writing by Darren Schuettler; Editing by Richard Meares)
