Supreme Court to hear appeal arguments of Aung San Suu Kyi

Dec 4, 2009, 9:14 GMT

   Yangon - Myanmar's Supreme Court will later this month hear opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi's request for an appeal against her 18-month sentence to house detention, Suu Kyi's lawyer said Friday.

   The court is due to hear Suu Kyi's arguments to appeal her sentence on December 21, said Nyan Win, a spokesman for Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) party and one of her lawyers.

   'We cannot say that the Supreme Court accepted the case. It is just a date set for the court to decide whether they will accept it or not after we present our arguments,' Nyan Win said.

   On August 11, a special court set up in Insein Prison found Suu Kyi, 64, guilty of breaking the terms of her detention by allowing US national John Yettaw to swim into her lakeside compound-cum-prison on May 3, and sentenced her to three years in prison with labour.

   Myanmar junta chief Senior General Than Shwe on the same day commuted the sentence to 18 months under house detention, long enough to ensure that she is not free during the period leading up to the planned general election next year, probably in May.

   Suu Kyi's trial prompted widespread criticism from Western democracies and even Myanmar's close allies in the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN).

   Suu Kyi leads the NLD, which won the country's last election in 1990 by a landslide even though she was under house arrest at the time of the polls. The party has been barred from power ever since.