YANGON: Myanmar democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi has told the court trying her that her trial on charges she violated her house arrest is a test of the military-run country's legal system.

Suu Kyi's full testimony in the closed-door trial was released for the first time by her opposition political party, the National League for Democracy. The court is due to reach a verdict next week.

The 64-year old Nobel Peace laureate — who is facing five years in prison for giving temporary shelter to an American man who swam to her house uninvited in early May — declared that the court's decision is already "painfully obvious."

Critics say the ruling military has seized upon the bizarre intrusion as an excuse to keep Suu Kyi jailed through next year's scheduled elections — the country's first in nearly two decades.

The charges against Suu Kyi, who has been detained for 14 of the last 20 years and was under house arrest at the time of the incident, have refocused international outrage on Myanmar.

The district court was scheduled to deliver the verdict last Friday but postponed its decision to Aug 11, saying it needed more time to consider relevant legal issues.

"The Court will pronounce on the innocence or guilt of a few individuals. The verdict will constitute a judgment on the whole of legal, justice and constitutional system in our country," Suu Kyi said in her statement during final court arguments on July 24. Her party released the full statement Monday.

Suu Kyi said that she had allowed the American to stay in her home "without malice, simply with intent to ensure that no one concerned should suffer any adverse consequences."

She also said that charges against her cannot be adequately assessed without determining the legality of her latest, five-year house arrest and how Myanmar's constitution applies in the case.

Her lawyers have argued that the repeated extensions of her house arrest were illegal and that she is being tried under a provision of a constitution that has been superseded.

"Throughout, my lawyers have been scrupulous in their efforts to procure due process, which is critical to the rule of law. Equally critical is the principle that justice must be done and seen to be done, clearly and unequivocally," Suu Kyi's statement said.

Verdicts were also postponed in the cases against the 53-year-old American, John Yettaw, and two women who lived with Suu Kyi — Khin Khin Win and her daughter Win Ma Ma. The women face similar charges to Suu Kyi, and Yettaw is accused of abetting the violation of Suu Kyi's house arrest. He faces up to five years in prison.

Suu Kyi's party won national elections in 1990, but Myanmar's generals, who have ruled the country since 1962, refused to relinquish power.