Closed-door Suu Kyi trial resumes in Myanmar

YANGON (Reuters) - The widely condemned trial of Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi resumed on Friday, a week after the country's military rulers ignored a plea from the United Nations chief to drop security charges against her.

Yangon's Northern District Court heard testimony from legal expert Khin Moe Moe, Suu Kyi's one remaining defense witness, legal sources said.

Suu Kyi, 64, faces five years in prison if found guilty of breaking a draconian security law that protects the state from "subversive elements."

The court agreed to adjourn final arguments in the case until July 24, said Suu Kyi's lawyer, Nyan Win.

"We were with her at the trial today and she is in good health. We've already met to discuss the 18-page draft of our final arguments," Nyan Win told Reuters.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon made a two-day visit to Myanmar a week ago, when he urged junta supremo Than Shwe to release Suu Kyi and more than 2,000 other political prisoners.

His request to see Suu Kyi was denied by Than Shwe and he left the country without any guarantees of democratic reforms.

Reporters and the public were kept away from Friday's trial, which has been dismissed by critics as an attempt to keep the Nobel laureate out of planned multi-party elections next year.

Britain's charge d'affaires in Yangon, Jeremy Hodges, asked to attend the trial but was told that authority for him to observe the proceedings had not come through to those in charge of security, the British embassy said in a statement.

"I asked for access to the court where Aung San Suu Kyi's trial resumed today. I was not allowed past the security cordon around the main gates of Insein prison which leads to the court," Hodges said.

"The trial fails to meet the most basic standards of Burmese law and international practice. The military regime has taken up powers that allow them to suspend what even they accept are established legal rights."

Suu Kyi allowed an American intruder to stay for two days at her lakeside home in Yangon on May 4, which the authorities said was in breach of her house arrest terms.

The American, John Yettaw, and two of Suu Kyi's housemaids, are charged under the same law, legislation her legal team says should not be applied because it is obsolete.

Leaders of Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) party, which won the country's last election by a landslide in 1990 but was denied the chance to rule, complained they were unable to discuss the political situation with Ban when they met on Saturday.

In a statement released on Thursday, the NLD said Ban met for only 10 minutes with representatives of 10 opposition parties, whom he told to put aside their differences and take part in next year's polls.

Critics say the election, the final part of Myanmar's seven-step "road map" to democracy, will be a sham designed to give legitimacy to the regime and entrench nearly half a century of army rule in the former Burma.

(Reporting by Aung Hla Tun; Writing by Martin Petty; Editing by Sugita Katyal))