THE stage is set for the trial of Aung San Suu Kyi tomorrow with troops and plainclothes thugs around her prison, the local media silenced and a key defence lawyer banned from acting on her behalf.

The Burmese military junta appears to have put everything in place for a swift and decisive verdict, brushing off criticism and diplomatic entreaties from around the world.

The leader of Burma’s democracy movement, who has become a symbol of peaceful resistance to tyranny, faces up to five years in jail thanks to a bizarre stunt by an American Mormon who swam across a lake to the home where she had been living under house arrest.

She is charged under section 22 of the state protection law with violating the restrictions imposed on her in detention.

The Burmese opposition fears the generals will seize the opportunity to exclude Suu Kyi from the political process leading to elections next year and to end her contacts with envoys from the United Nations.

Yesterday Aung Thein, one of Suu Kyi’s lawyers, said the authorities had stripped him of his licence to stop him attending the trial at Insein prison.

The Nobel peace prize winner, who is 63 and in poor health, was taken last week to the jail. The Norwegian Nobel committee said her plight was “totally unacceptable”.

None the less, Kyi Win, another of her lawyers, reported she was “looking good”, feeling strong and was convinced that she would be acquitted.

The prison, built by the British colonial authorities, acquired notoriety during the Japanese occupation of the second world war. Since Burmese independence in 1947, it has maintained a reputation for appalling conditions, torture and the abuse of prisoners.

Suu Kyi is being held with two female companions who normally look after her at her home on Lake Inya, in north Rangoon. They, too, face charges in connection with the case.

Her doctor, Tin Myo Win, who has been treating her for low blood pressure, is also expected to be put on trial.

Suu Kyi has been in detention for 13 of the past 19 years. Her latest six-year house arrest was due to end on May 27.

The new charges arise from an escapade by John Yettaw, a 53-year-old American who swam across the lake to her house and persuaded the women to let him stay overnight. Guards arrested him as he tried to swim back.

Yettaw faces trial for entering a restricted area and breaking immigration laws.

American diplomats have been allowed to meet Yettaw, who suffers from diabetes and appeared gaunt in photographs published by the government-controlled press. He, too, could receive a five-year sentence.

Yettaw’s motives remain unclear. Betty Yettaw, his second wife, said he was “not political” and had gone off to Asia on a shoestring, leaving five children in America. She said he had wanted to speak to Suu Kyi about a psychology paper he was preparing on forgiveness.

There was little forgiveness for Yettaw among ordinary Burmese, while rumours that he was a tool of the regime swept the tea-shops and internet cafes where most Rangoon residents get their news.

“Upset and infuriated” was how one blogger described himself on the website of The Irrawaddy, an exile magazine. The censored Burmese media, which had earlier highlighted Suu Kyi’s encounter with the American, have been ordered to remain silent, presumably to prevent demonstrations.

Sein Win, the opposition politician who is Suu Kyi’s cousin and lives in Washington, called the affair “a political ploy” by the military.

Its most profound effect may be on the debate over policy towards Burma inside the new American administration.

Last Friday President Barack Obama renewed sanctions, saying the junta’s “actions and policies are hostile to US interests”.

But since Hillary Clinton, the secretary of state, said in February that sanctions were “not working”, diplomats, analysts and campaigners have all been seeking to influence the search for what Clinton calls “new ways” to deal with the regime. The process was expected to generate recommendations early in the summer.

For Burma’s people, change cannot come too soon. “To the UN and the US,” wrote a blogger last week. “Please don’t wait until we all die on the street.”

Times Recommends

• No apology for Germany’s own Nazi victims
• Intricate web of fear and hope tying down deal
• Victims remembered a year after Mumbai attacks