Myanmar's junta has barred a prominent activist lawyer from defending opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, as pressure intensifies on the regime to drop new charges against the Nobel Peace laureate.
Aung Thein said the order revoking his licence was issued last Friday, a day after a prison court charged Suu Kyi with breaking the conditions of her nearly six-year house arrest, which is due to expire on May 27.
"I went to Insein Prison to be one of the five defence lawyers for Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, and they issued the order the next day," Aung Thein said.
Critics of the regime have denounced the trial of Suu Kyi and two female companions, due to start tomorrow, on charges stemming from the mysterious visit of an American intruder who was arrested after he claimed to have spent two days at her lakeside home in Yangon.
Suu Kyi, 63, faces up to five years in jail if convicted.
Her lawyers insist she is innocent and did not invite US citizen John Yettaw, who according to state media swam to her tightly-guarded lakeside home using homemade flippers.
Yettaw's motives remained unclear, but he has been charged with various offences, including encouraging others to break the law and "illegal swimming".
Aung Thein, 62, was jailed for four months last year for contempt of court while defending political activists. A close associate who is not involved in Suu Kyi's defence, Khin Maung Shein, also had his licence revoked.
"The revoking of his licence to practise law is a blatant attempt by the regime to damage the defence for Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and her two live-in party members," the Thailand-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners said.
The rights group said 11 lawyers remain jailed in Myanmar.
The military, which has ruled the former Burma since 1962, has so far ignored the international outcry over its latest crackdown on Suu Kyi, who has spent more than 13 of the past 19 years in some form of detention.
US President Barack Obama renewed sanctions against the regime last Friday, saying its actions and policies continued to pose a serious threat to US interests.
Washington has led Western governments in gradually tightening sanctions against the regime over its resistance to political reforms and detention of Suu Kyi and more than 2,000 other activists.
Pro-democracy activists cheered Obama's announcement and urged him to lead a wider effort to pressure the regime.
"Now that President Obama has continued a wise policy from the United States, it is time for him to seize the moment and take action internationally," said Jeremy Woodrum of the US Campaign for Burma.
Analysts say the charges against Suu Kyi are aimed at keeping her sidelined ahead of the junta's promised elections in 2010, part of its seven-step "roadmap to democracy".
The West has derided the roadmap as a sham to ensure the military's grip on power. Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) won a landslide election victory in 1990 only to be denied power by the military.