Burma’s military rulers allowed foreign diplomats and journalists to attend the trial of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi on Wednesday, a move which observers said showed increasing confidence that they had a strong legal case to continue her incarceration.

Mrs Suu Kyi, who has spent almost 13 of the last 19 years under house arrest without trial, is accused of breaking the conditions of her detention by allowing John Yettaw, an American who two weeks ago swam across the lake that backs onto her house, to spend the night.