Myanmar's military junta was set to put Aung San Suu Kyi on trial on charges that could place the pro-democracy leader behind bars for five years and lead to her missing promised elections, AFP reported.
The Nobel Peace Prize laureate's party said she will proclaim her innocence when she appears in court to face claims that she violated her house arrest by sheltering an American man who swam across a lake to her residence.
The 63-year-old met her lawyer at the weekend at the notorious Insein prison, where she was moved last week from the crumbling property where she has spent most of the last 19 years in virtual isolation.
Myanmar has faced a storm of international protest over the charges, which critics say have been trumped up by the military regime to keep her behind bars for controversial polls scheduled by the generals for 2010.
A spokesman for her opposition National League for Democracy party, Nyan Win, said on Sunday that she told her lawyer "that she didn't commit any crimes and she is ready to talk about it in court".
US national John Yettaw, 53, whose intrusion into her home earlier this month sparked the charges, will also be on trial at the closed-doors court inside Insein prison, along with Aung San Suu Kyi's two maids.
Aung San Suu Kyi latest six-year period of detention was due to expire at the end of the month but Yettaw's visit has apparently provided the junta with the ammunition it needs to extend her detention.
Her party won Myanmar's last elections in 1990 yet the junta, headed by reclusive Senior General Than Shwe, refused to recognise the results and critics say it now hopes to gain legitimacy with next year's polls.
Under a constitution forced through last year, Aung San Suu Kyi is already barred from taking office after the elections as she had children with her British husband Michael Aris, an academic who died in 1999.
But analysts say the junta's determination to keep her locked up shows that they still perceive the softly-spoken activist as a major threat to their iron rule over Myanmar, which has been controlled by the military since 1962.
In a surprise move, the regime on Saturday released her doctor, Tin Myo Win, nearly two weeks after he was held by authorities in connection with Yettaw's visit.
The release came after the United States urged the junta to let him visit Aung San Suu Kyi. She was placed on an intravenous drip at her house on May 8 because she could not eat, had low blood pressure and was dehydrated.
But Aung Thein, another lawyer who applied to represent her at the trial, said on Saturday he had been disbarred by the authorities a day earlier.
Washington, which has imposed tough sanctions on Myanmar and called for it to release Aung San Suu Kyi and around 2,000 other political prisoners, has led criticism of the latest charges against her.
US President Barack Obama formally extended sanctions against Myanmar on Friday, despite an official US review of policy on Myanmar, also known as Burma.
There has however been no official statement from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, of which Myanmar is a member, although Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore and the Philippines have issued separate condemnations.
China, one of Myanmar's closest backers, and India have also remained silent but among other Asian powers Japan has called for Aung San Suu Kyi's release.
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