As reported by the BBC, a verdict is expected soon on the trial of Burma’s pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

Jailed pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi

A BBC correspondent in Burma spoke to people about their hopes and fears for Aung San Suu Kyi. In Burma’s second city, Mandalay, the streets are full of bicycles at rush hour as men and women head to their places of work and study. But behind the picture-postcard setting of palaces and stupas [temples], is a country where people can be arrested for telling a joke or having a photograph of jailed pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

Behind closed doors, in the security of their homes and among those they can trust, people hand out pictures of Ms Suu Kyi. To be caught by police with her photograph is cause enough to be imprisoned. To be caught talking to a foreign journalist means risking a sentence to a term in one of Burma’s many jails. But people are angry and want the world to know of their plight and their reverence for the woman referred to as The Lady.

In the words of one Mandalay citizen: “People love Aung San Suu Kyi. People believe Aung San Suu Kyi. She’s our only hope…We love her. She is the hope of the people. If she was jailed the people will be angry. And this could be the small spark that can burn down the palace”.

With elections due next year, many believe that her arrest is a convenient way for the generals to keep the one person they fear out of the way.

Read the full BBC article here.

For more information about Aung San Suu Kyi visit The Burma Campaign UK.