FACTBOX: Key facts on Myanmar's Aung San Suu Kyi
(Reuters) - Myanmar's detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi faced trial on Thursday, apparently charged with violating the conditions of her house arrest after a mysterious American man swam to her lakeside compound.
The Nobel Peace laureate faced up to five years in jail if convicted, her lawyer Kyi Win said.
Here are some key facts on Suu Kyi, who went from being a housewife in the English countryside to one of the world's most famous political prisoners and an icon of Myanmar's democracy struggle.
** EARLY LIFE
-- Born in Rangoon (now Yangon) in June 1945, she is the daughter of Burmese general Aung San who was a national hero. Her father was assassinated in 1947. Her mother Daw Khin Kyi was also a prominent public figure.
-- After studying politics in Delhi, Suu Kyi studied philosophy, politics and economics at Britain's Oxford University. In 1972 she married British academic Michael Aris.
** POLITICAL ROLE:
-- Suu Kyi returned to Yangon in April 1988 to look after her mother just as resentment of military rule boiled over into countrywide pro-democracy protests. Daw Khin Kyi died in 1988.
Named secretary general of the National League for Democracy (NLD) the same year, Suu Kyi called for an end to the military rule established in a 1962 coup.
-- Suu Kyi was put under house arrest in July 1989 for "endangering the state." Her husband and sons were placed under similar restrictions when they joined her in 1989 from Britain.
-- Although Suu Kyi was barred from standing in general elections in 1990, her NLD party won 392 of 485 parliamentary seats in the first multi-party general election since 1960. The military ignored the result, refusing to relinquish power.
** HOUSE ARREST:
-- Awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991, Suu Kyi has been in prison or under house arrest off and on since 1989. Aris died in March 1999 and Suu Kyi declined an offer from the junta to leave the country to attend his funeral in Britain.
-- Suu Kyi's latest stretch of detention began on May 30, 2003 after clashes between her supporters and pro-junta demonstrators. Since then, she has been held virtually incommunicado, with her telephone line cut, her mail intercepted and visitors restricted.
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