Burmese Days

Aung San Suu Kyi Found Guilty

American visitor also charged.

Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar’s pro-democracy leader and a Nobel Peace Prize recipient who has been in detention for 14 years, will now serve even more time. An American has been convicted of violating the terms of Suu Kyi's house arrest—and has been sentenced to seven years in prison, including four at hard labor. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has demanded her release, saying, "She should not have been tried, and she should not have been convicted." John Yettaw, 53, from Falcon, Mo. came to Suu Kyi by the water: He swam up to her lakeside home and, though he was uninvited, stayed for two days. In addition to the years he’ll serve for violating the house arrest and for an immigration violation, he’s been charged with an extra year for swimming in a restricted zone. Suu Kyi’s sentence, meanwhile, has been extended by a year and a half for the house-arrest violation.