US man in Suu Kyi trial flies home

August 19, 2009 07:45:58 PM

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<meta content="text/html; charset=utf-8" http-equiv="Content-Type" /> <meta content="Word.Document\" name="ProgId" /> <meta content="Microsoft Word 11" name="Generator" /> <meta content="Microsoft Word 11" name="Originator" /> <link href="file:///C:\Users\User\AppData\Local\Temp\msohtml11\clip_filelist.xml" rel="File-List" /><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 </xml><xml> </xml><object classid="clsid:38481807-CA0E-42D2-BF39-B33AF135CC4D" id=ieooui></object> <style> st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } </style> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} </style> A US man jailed for swimming to Aung San Suu Kyi's home flew home from Thailand Wednesday, officials said, ending a bizarre saga that has left the Myanmar democracy icon locked up for another 18 months.

John Yettaw, 54, had three days of medical tests at a hospital in Bangkok following his deportation from Myanmar on Sunday, after his release was secured with the surprise visit of a US senator to the military-run nation.

Yettaw's United Airlines flight left early Wednesday bound for Tokyo before going on to Los Angeles, the head of immigration at Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi International airport confirmed.

"Mr John William Yettaw left Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi on UA 890 flight," Colonel Pongdej Chaiprawet told AFP.

A spokeswoman for the US embassy in Bangkok, Cynthia Brown, said she could not comment on Yettaw's departure. "Due to privacy concerns, we cannot confirm his travel plans," she said.

Yettaw had been sentenced to seven years' hard labour for swimming to the lakeside home of Suu Kyi in early May using a pair of homemade flippers, but he was freed after the weekend visit by Democratic Senator Jim Webb.

A devout Mormon from Falcon, Missouri, Yettaw told his trial that he intruded on Suu Kyi's house on a "mission from God" to warn her about a vision that she would be assassinated.

But his actions led to her arrest and last week she was sentenced to a further 18 months under house arrest, meaning that she will be locked up during elections promised by the ruling junta in 2010.

The military regime has kept the opposition leader in detention for 14 of the past 20 years. It refused to recognise her National League for Democracy's landslide victory in the last national polls, in 1990.

Yettaw, who suffers from diabetes and epilepsy, required hospital treatment earlier this month when he suffered a number of fits at Yangon's notorious Insein prison after refusing solid food for weeks.

Webb said Sunday that Yettaw was "not a well man" and had suffered what the senator called a medical episode even as he was being deported by Myanmar authorities.

The senator was allowed to meet with Suu Kyi -- unlike UN head Ban Ki-Moon, who was denied access to the opposition leader during a visit in July -- as well as hold talks with military ruler Than Shwe.

He denied after the talks that he had offered Myanmar's rulers anything in exchange for Yettaw's freedom, and said he was "hopeful" they would heed calls to free Suu Kyi to allow her to participate in next year's elections.

But Webb is a vocal critic of US economic sanctions and said he was seeking a "new approach" with the junta. Myanmar has been ruled by the military since 1962.

Myanmar's state media trumpeted Webb's visit as a "success for both sides" on Tuesday. The United States has welcomed the release of Yettaw but called for the release of all political prisoners.

Dissidents have criticised Webb's visit, saying that he was used as a propaganda tool by the regime and lamenting the fact that he won the release of Yettaw while Suu Kyi stays in detention.