American who visited Suu Kyi to be freed from Myanmar

[Heidi]

Source: Reuters

Sat Aug 15, 2009 6:38pm IST

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The American man who swam across a lake to visit Myanmar's opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi will be released on Sunday, according to a statement issued on Saturday by U.S. Senator Jim Webb.

American John Yettaw had been sentenced to seven years hard labor by Myanmar's military government.

Suu Kyi was found guilty by a Myanmar court last week of violating a security law after Yettaw swam uninvited across a lake to her home in May. Yettaw was sentenced to prison in a parallel trial on three charges, including immigration offenses.

"I am grateful to the Myanmar government for honoring these requests," said Webb who is visiting Myanmar and sought Yettaw's release.



Read more: http://in.reuters.com/article/southAsiaNews/idINIndia-41779320090815

[DeepBlueC]

1. guy's an asshole

but I guess the generals are grateful to him for giving them a pretext. I'll be sick if I see any televised welcomes back for him.

[newfie11]

2. To bad we can't let the idiot rot there

He certainly did not improve the life of Suu Kyi. What a jackass.

[Heidi]

3. I would be more inclined to think him mentally ill.

You're right that he didn't improve her situation, but Yettaw did testif in court that he believed God had sent him to Myanmar to protect the Aung Sang Suu Kyi because he dreamed that a terrorist group would assassinate her. That is not a sign of rational thought, in my opinion.

[JTFrog]

4. U.S. senator meets jailed democracy icon

Source: MSNBC

YANGON, Myanmar - U.S. Sen. Jim Webb met with Myanmar's democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi on Saturday, the first foreign official allowed to see her since the military junta sentenced her to 18 months of detention, witnesses said.

Official sources said it was also "likely" that the regime would deport the American convicted along with Suu Kyi for violating the terms of her house arrest and hand him over to Webb.

John Yettaw was sentenced to seven years in prison with hard labor for swimming secretly to Suu Kyi's house in early May and is being held in Yangon's notorious Insein prison.


On Saturday, the 64-year-old Nobel Peace laureate was driven from her residence to a nearby government guest house for a 40-minute meeting with Webb, then reporters saw her taken home by car.

Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32426916/ns/world_news-asiapacific

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Top of page Breaking News was reporting: "Sen. Jim Webb's office says he has won release of American prisoner in Myanmar"

*edit - searched and didn't find this, but just saw this was actually posted a few minutes ago, sorry for dupe.

[RFKHumphreyObama]

5. While it is true that the military probably would have found some excuse to prosecute

Aung San Suu Kyi and prevent her from taking part in elections, I have very mixed emotions about this. I realize that he's probably delusional and kudos to Senator Webb for getting him released but I am beyond enraged at the stupidity of what he did and the consequences it had for Suu Kyi.

[FarCenter]

6. This was the second time he'd done it

Her problem was that she didn't turn the nutcase Mormon from Missouri over to the authorities as soon as he arrived at her house.

See http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1899769,00.html

http://democracyforburma.wordpress.com/2009/05/15/wife-of-us-man-john-yettaw-who-swam-to-suu-kyi-prompting-new-charges-says-hes-eccentric-nonpolitical/