U.S. citizen John Yettaw, seen here in 2005, was arrested in Myanmar for entering the compound of Myanmar pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
May 6, 2002: Aung San Suu Kyi is seen at a press conference after being freed from 19 months under house arrest.
Jan. 30, 2008: Burma's pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi is seen in Yangon
-Aug. 11: Activists holds a banner calling for the release of detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi outside the Burmese Embassy in Bangkok.-
European leaders sharply condemned the sentencing Tuesday of Burma's most prominent pro-democracy leader to an additional 18 months of house arrest.
Suu Kyi, the 64-year-old Nobel Peace laureate, has been in detention in Myanmar, also known as Burma, for 14 of the last 20 years, mostly under house arrest. She has now been ordered to serve an 18-month sentence for allowing an uninvited American to stay at her home.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown decried what he called a "sham trial." Sweden, which holds the presidency of the European Union, promised tighter sanctions against Burma's leaders. Amnesty International's secretary general called the verdict "shameful."
Aung San Suu Kyi, head of Burma's National League for Democracy, was found guilty Tuesday of violating the conditions of her house arrest by allowing an uninvited American to stay at her home.
The U.S. man on trial in Myanmar alongside Aung San Suu Kyi was Monday night discharged from the hospital where he had been recovering from epileptic seizures, an official source said.
American John Yettaw's departure from Yangon General Hospital, where he spent a week undergoing treatment, means a verdict in Suu Kyi's court case could now go ahead on Tuesday morning as scheduled at Insein prison's court.
Diplomats and officials had said a judgment could be postponed once again if her co-defendant Yettaw - who sparked the case by swimming to her lakeside home in May - had remained hospitalized after suffering repeated epileptic fits.
But an official source confirmed to AFP on Monday night, on condition of anonymity, that Yettaw had been discharged from the city hospital, having been taken there from the prison a week ago.
Yettaw faces charges of abetting Suu Kyi's breach of security laws, immigration violations and a municipal charge of illegal swimming.Yettaw, 53, of Falcon, Mo., swam across a lake, entered Suu Kyi's home uninvited and asked to spend two nights before trying to secretly swim back. He told his lawyer that he swam to Suu Kyi's residence to warn her of an assassination attempt that he had seen in a vision.
The court sentenced him to three years in prison for breaching Suu Kyi's house arrest, three years in prison for an immigration violation and to another year for swimming in a restricted zone.
Yettaw was hospitalized last Monday after suffering seizures. He reportedly suffers from epilepsy, diabetes and other health problems, including post traumatic stress disorder from his service in the U.S. military.
The head of the military-ruled country ordered her to serve an additional 18-month sentence under house arrest. Suu Kyi, a 64-year-old Nobel Peace Prize, laureate has already been in detention for 14 of the last 20 years.
International criticism was swift in coming.
"This political trial had just one aim: to prevent Madame Aung San Suu Kyi from leading her fight in favor of a free and democratic Burma," he said in a statement issued in Paris.
Burma, also known as Burma, has been ruled by the military since 1962.
The current junta came to power in 1988 after crushing a pro-democracy uprising. Suu Kyi's party won 392 of 495 parliament seats in 1990 elections, but the military ignored the results. Suu Kyi became a symbol of Burma's suppressed democracy and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991.
Irene Khan, Amnesty International's secretary general, said Suu Kyi had faced a maximum sentence of five years.
"The Burma authorities will hope that a sentence that is shorter than the maximum will be seen by the international community as an act of leniency," added Khan. "But it is not, and must not be seen as such."
She said Suu Kyi should never have been arrested in the first place.
For now, the 64-year-old Nobel Peace Prize laureate, arguably the world's most famous prisoner, will likely return to her daily meditation, listening to radio news broadcasts and waiting for the occasional censored mail, including letters from two sons she last saw a decade ago.
During her 86-day trial, diplomats and supporters were impressed by Suu Kyi's grace under pressure, rebuking those who called Yettaw a fool, sharing her birthday chocolate cake with prison guards and thanking envoys for their support.
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VOA Burmese reporter Ronnie Nyane met John Yettaw's wife Betty Yettaw and police chief Richard Wrinkles to find out background and life of John William Yettaw, who secretly swam across the Inyar lake and got into pro-democracy leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's house, and currently being detained by the military regime in Burma.
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