Burma’s opposition leader the Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi went on trial on Monday charged with breaching the terms of her house arrest after an American citizen swam across the lake outside her home to visit her.

The intruder, 53-year-old John Yettaw, from Falcon, Missouri, also went on trial, as did the mother and daughter who have been Mrs Suu Kyi’s only companions since her latest period of incarceration began in 2003.