Yangon - A Yangon court Tuesday overruled a lower court decision to allow another witness to testify in defence of democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi, who stands accused of breaking the terms of her house arrest.

The Yangon Divisional Court allowed female attorney Khin Moh Moh to appear as a witness in Suu Kyi's case, but rejected a defence request for senior opposition leaders Win Tin and Tin Oo to testify, according to defence lawyer Nyan Win.

"We will appeal to the Supreme Court on Thursday to rule on whether the other two can appear as witnesses," Nyan Win said.

The Yangon Divisional Court's decision to allow Khin Moh Moh's testimony overturned a previous ruling by an Insein Prison court which refused all three witnesses.

Originally, the prosecution and defence were scheduled to make their final arguments last Friday at the prison in Yangon against the Nobel Peace Prize laureate, her two household helpers and US citizen John William Yettaw.

Suu Kyi's trial began May 11. While the prosecution was allowed to present 14 witnesses, the defence was originally only allowed one.

Suu Kyi, who has spent 13 of the past 19 years in detention, stands accused of breaking the terms of her latest house arrest by permitting Yettaw, 53, to swim to her home
-cum-prison on Yangon's Inya Lake May 3 and spend two nights there before swimming away.

Yettaw faces several charges, including immigration violations for visiting a prisoner while on a tourist visa, and local laws for swimming illegally in Inya Lake, state media reported.

The junta's critics have accused it of using the case as a pretext to keep Suu Kyi in jail during a politically sensitive period leading up to a general election planned for next year.

Suu Kyi is the leader of the National League for Democracy, which won the 1990 general election by a landslide but has been blocked from power by Myanmar's junta for the past 19 years.

The new trial of Suu Kyi, whose most recent six-year house detention sentence expired May 27, has sparked a chorus of protests from world leaders and even statements of concern from Myanmar's regional allies in the Association of South-East Asian Nations. (dpa)