JURIST - Paper Chase: Myanmar high court to consider hearing Suu Kyi appeal

[JURIST] Myanmar's Supreme Court announced Friday that it will hold a hearing October 18 to decide whether to consider an appeal [JURIST report] filed in May by pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] challenging her continued house arrest. The hearing will occur [AFP report] less than a month before November 13, when Suu Kyi's house arrest is scheduled to end [JURIST report], six days after Myanmar holds its first national elections since 1990. On Thursday, Myanmar's Supreme Court agreed to hear an appeal [Mizzima report] filed by Suu Kyi [JURIST report] the day before challenging the dissolution of her National League for Democracy (NLD) [party website] under a controversial election law that bars political prisoners [JURIST reports] from participating in elections.

In June, an independent UN human rights expert called for the release [JURIST report] of Suu Kyi and other political prisoners in Myanmar, claiming their continued detention "contravenes international human rights law and casts a long shadow over planned elections in the country." Suu Kyi originally challenged the election law [JURIST report] dissolving the NLD in April, but her suit was rejected. In March, the NLD announced that it would not take part in the nation's first elections in 20 years after the Myanmar Supreme Court rejected [JURIST reports] a lawsuit brought by the NLD to repeal the election laws preventing Suu Kyi from participating. In February, the Myanmar Supreme Court dismissed an appeal filed by Suu Kyi challenging an 18-month extension to her house arrest imposed last August after Suu Kyi was found to have violated the terms of her house arrest [JURIST reports] after an American swam across a lake to her home.