American John Yettaw — who defied the military rulers of Burma to swim to the home of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi — could learn his fate Friday.
The prison court will pass judgment on charges of trespassing against Yettaw, in addition to charges that Nobel laureate Suu Kyi breached the terms of her house arrest by sheltering Yettaw when he arrived at her home in May. If found guilty, Suu Kyi could face up to five years in prison.
In testimony made before the prison court, Yettaw, a father of seven from Falcon, Missouri, revealed that he had had a divine vision that "terrorists" would assassinate Suu Kyi, and claimed that he wanted to warn her.
The timing of his trip in May, just days before Suu Kyi’s six-year house arrest was set to expire, initially prompted conspiracy theories that Yettaw had acted as an agent of the Burmese military government.
Those theories were largely abandoned after it emerged that Yettaw, a deeply spiritual man with a history of mental instability, had in fact had a long-time obsession with Suu Kyi, and had attempted to visit the pro-democracy leader once before in November, 2008.
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