Thursday, December 24, 2009

Repair work on Suu Kyi’s house halted

 
Phanida

December 24, 2009

Chiang Mai (Mizzima) - Detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has been ordered to stop repair works of her lakeside house, after her elder brother filed a complaint, her lawyer Nyan Win said.

The Rangoon civic body on Wednesday told Nyan Win to stop all repair works at Suu Kyi’s house, as her elder brother Aung San Oo’s lawyer Han Toe had filed a complaint against the renovation and repairs.

“The notice came this morning. The municipality said Aung San Oo’s lawyer Han Toe had filed a complaint. The notice was just one sentence saying ‘to stop repairing of the house while it is under investigation’,” Nyan Win said.

The detained pro-democracy leader, after a long procedure of seeking permission, was allowed by the civic body to repair her colonial-era house and to finish all repair works before the end of February 2010.

A partition between the balcony and the living room in the upper storey of the house is being raised.

Aung San Oo, the eldest among three children of Burma’s independence architect General Aung San, is currently living in United States and in 2000 had filed a lawsuit in the Rangoon High court demanding half of his father’s house, where his sister Suu Kyi had been kept under solitary confinement for most of 14 of the past 20 years.

On December 15, Soe Win Naing, who claims to be Aung San Oo’s representative, had verbally complained against the house repair in the municipal office.

Lawyers of the Burmese Nobel Peace Laureate Suu Kyi said they will submit a petition in the municipal office on Thursday over the complaint against the repair work.

The Burmese democracy icon’s legal team is also scheduled to visit her at her lakeside house on Thursday to discuss the appeal against her 18 months suspended sentence, handed down by a district court in August.