YANGON - LAWYERS for Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi expressed optimism about her case after the only witness allowed to testify for the defense addressed the court in her trial on charges of violating house arrest.

Closing arguments in a case that could send the Nobel Peace laureate to prison for five years are set to be heard on Monday. The defence has argued that there is no legal basis for the charge that Ms Suu Kyi had violated the terms of her house arrest when an uninvited American swam secretly to her home.

Ms Suu Kyi's supporters fear that she may be found guilty because the courts are under the influence of the ruling junta and usually mete out harsh punishment for political dissidents.

But one of Ms Suu Kyi's lawyers, Nyan Win, said on Thursday night he was 'very confident of victory if the trial is carried out according to law.' The court was in recess on Friday.

The trial has drawn outrage from the international community and Suu Kyi's local supporters, who worry that the military junta has found an excuse to keep her detained through next year's elections. Her party won the last elections in 1990 but was not allowed to take power by the military, which has run the country since 1962.

Ms Suu Kyi's defence team acknowledges that 53-year-old John W. Yettaw swam to and entered her lakeside home, where he stayed for two days. They argue, however, that it was the duty of government guards outside her closely watched house to prevent any intruders.

Yettaw was taken to Ms Suu Kyi's residence on Thursday, accompanied by dozens of police, to re-enact before court officials how he entered and left her compound, said state-run newspapers on Friday, which also published photos of the re-enactment.

Mr Kyi Win, the defence witness who is a legal expert and a member of Ms Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party, highlighted what appears to be the defense's main argument, that the charge against Suu Kyi is unlawful. The meeting's closing statement on Thursday made no direct demand for Ms Suu Kyi's immediate release.

But Jan Kohout, deputy prime minister of the Czech Republic and the meeting's co-chairman, said that 'we are still deeply concerned over Ms Aung San Suu Kyi's detention and (urge) that she should be released immediately.'

Myanmar Deputy Foreign Minister Maung Myint said it was inappropriate for the meeting to take up Suu Kyi's cases, because it breached the region's traditional policy of noninterference in each other's affairs. -- AP