Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi files appeal

Sep 3, 2009, 9:20 GMT

   Yangon - Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Thursday submitted an appeal against last month's court decision that put her under house detention for the next 18 months, her attorneys said.

   'We have registered the file, but it is up to the divisional court to decide whether to accept it or not,' lawyer Nyan Win said.

   The attorneys submitted the appeal to the Yangon Divisional Court on behalf of their client, who has spent 14 of the past 20 years under detention and is now being detained at her Yangon family compound.

   On August 11, a special court set up in Yangon's Insein Prison found Suu Kyi, 64, guilty of violating the terms of her house arrest and sentenced her to three years in prison with hard labour. The sentence was quickly commuted to 18 months under house detention by Myanmar's military supremo, Senior General Than Shwe.

   Suu Kyi was found guilty of allowing US national John William Yettaw to swim to her lakeside home-cum-prison on May 3, where he stayed uninvited until May 5, to warn her of an assassination attempt he said he had envisioned.

   Suu Kyi's two household aides, Khin Khin Win and Win Ma Ma, were also found guilty of abetting Yettaw's visit and were sentenced to three years in jail, which was also commuted to 18 months under house arrest.

   Their cases have also been appealed by Suu Kyi's legal team.

   Yettaw's swimming escapade provided a pretext for Myanmar's military regime to accuse Suu Kyi of violating the terms of her detention and to keep her out of the political picture for the next 18 months while it prepares for a general election next year, which promises to be neither free nor fair.

   Yettaw, 54, was sentenced to seven years in prison but was freed August 16 at the request of visiting US Senator Jim Webb, chairman of the US Senate's East Asia and Pacific Affairs Subcommittee.

   Webb, in a rare interview with Than Shwe, also requested that Suu Kyi be released but failed to secure the Nobel Peace Prize laureate's freedom.

   Suu Kyi's ongoing house detention meant that it was unlikely that her National League for Democracy opposition party, which won the last polls in 1990 but has been denied power for the past 19 years, would participate in next year's election.

   It also dashed hopes that prior to the polls, the regime might open a dialogue with the democracy icon and consider amending the 2008 constitution, which essentially cements the military's control over any democratically elected government.

   Myanmar has been under military rule since 1962.