Jan 13, 2009 (DVB), Lawyers defending two 1990 people’s parliament representatives, Nyi Pu and Dr Tin Min Htut, were denied entry to the courtroom at Insein prison special court yesterday.

Nyi Pu and Dr Tin Min Htut are facing four different charges including sedition and disrupting the national convention.

Central court lawyer Kyaw Ho said he had arrived in court at around 9am yesterday morning with fellow lawyers Maung Maung Latt and Sithu Maung to attend the hearing.

"We already have obtained all the necessary documents to act as defending lawyers for the two on 6 January," Kyaw Ho said.

"We filled out and submitted forms to gain entry to the courtroom but then we were told by the deputy prison chief and another official we were not allowed in," he said.

"I asked them whether it was the prison’s decision to not let us in, and they said the prison had nothing to do with it and that it was an order from the special police’s prosecution department."

Kyaw Ho said the lawyers had asked secondary provincial judge Tin Htut of western Rangoon provincial court, who was hearing the case, to help them negotiate with government authorities to gain access to the courtroom.

"It’s the judge’s responsibility to enable us to come to the court hearing; otherwise it disadvantages defendants whose lawyers are not present," he said.

Relatives of Nyi Pu and Tin Min Htut who went to the prison to visit them yesterday were not allowed to see them due to the court hearing.

Reporting by Nan Kham Kaew