Asia-Pacific

Myanmar political figure Aung San Suu Kyi freed

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-11-13 21:11

YANGON - Aung San Suu Kyi, a noted political figure and leader of the "dissolved" National League for Democracy (NLD), was freed by the government on Saturday evening after serving 18 months' confinement to her residence in Yangon.

Aung San Suu Kyi's terms of house arrest expired on Saturday.  

Aung San Suu Kyi walks with National League for Democracy party members after being released from house arrest in Yangon November 13, 2010.[Photo/Agencies]

Barricades placed in front of her lake-side residence have been removed where hundreds of people along with newsmen had been gathering day and night since Friday.

NLD headquarters in Yangon are also packed with people to greet freed Aung San Suu Kyi.

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The release of Aung San Suu Kyi, 65, came six days after Myanmar held a multi-party general election on November 7, which her party boycotted out of election law issue.

Aung San Suu Kyi, NLD General Secretary, was last sentenced by a district court to three years' rigorous term on August 11, 2009 for allegedly violating her terms of house arrest by accommodating a US citizen, John William Yettaw, who swam across the Inya Lake in Yangon and sneaked into her lakeside house for three days from May 3 to 5 when she was under restriction.

The sentence was then commuted half and the remainder was suspended by the ruling State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) by putting her under 18 months of house restriction until expiry on Saturday.

She failed in appealing against her house arrest for several times earlier over the detention period.

Aung San Suu Kyi had been detained off and on for 15 out of the past 21 years from July 1989 to May 26, 2009 with the first being for nearly six years until July 10, 1995 on charge of "endangering security of the state". The second time was from September 22, 2000 to May 2002 for her defiance of the government's travel restriction by forcing her way to the second largest city of Mandalay. The third time, from May 30, 2003, was due to the Dabayin bloody incident in northwestern Sagaing region in which clashes occurred between government supporters and NLD supporters. The fourth from May 2009 to date was due to "Yettaw Incident".