NEWS- Foreigner Pleads Guilty to Il

[TheTruth@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Foreigner Pleads Guilty to Illegal Myanmar Entry

         Reuters
         13-MAY-98

         YANGON, May 13 (Reuters) - A foreigner on trial in a Yangon
court on a charge of
         entering Myanmar illegally pleaded guilty on Wednesday and was
told by the judge
         that he would be sentenced on Friday. 

         James Mawdsley, 24, who holds British and Australian passports,
faces a possible
         prison term ranging from six months to five years and/or a fine
of 1,500 Kyat ($250)
         for the offence, court officials said. 

         Judge U Than Htwe set the sentencing date after hearing the
guilty plea. 

         British ambassador Robert A.E. Gordon, along with Australian
consular officials,
         attended the half-hour hearing. 

         Mawdsley entered Myanmar illegally from Mae Sot in western
Thailand through a
         jungle route and was arrested on April 30. 

         Mawdsley was also arrested by Myanmar military authorities last
September after
         chaining himself to a fence in central Yangon and shouting
anti-government
         slogans. He was subsequently deported. 

         State-controlled media had accused him of being a foreign
mercenary working for
         dissident groups opposed to the ruling military junta.