Jan 18, 2010, 9:18 GMT
Yangon - Myanmar's Supreme Court on Monday heard the final appeal arguments of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi against an 18-month house arrest, which would keep her confined during a general election planned this year.
After hearing arguments of the defence and prosecution, the court did not immediately set a date for its verdict.
'I think that final decision by the Supreme Court will be made within 30 days,' Kyi Win, one of the defense lawyers for Aung San Suu Kyi told the German Press Agency dpa at the court.
On August 11, a special prison court sentenced Suu Kyi, 64, to 18 months of house arrest for breaking the conditions of her previous detention term. It convicted her of allowing US national John Yettaw to stay at her lakeside home after he swam there uninvited on the night of May 3, 2009.
The sentence was widely condemned by the international community as an excuse to keep Suu Kyi, leader of the National League for Democracy opposition party, out of the political scene as the ruling junta stages a general election some time this year.
Suu Kyi had earlier appealed the case at the Myanmar Appeal Court, which upheld the sentence.
Her lawyers argued Monday that the charge of breaking her terms of incarceration harked back to the 1974 constitution, which had been superceded by the new constitution adopted in 2008.
'We are optimistic about today's argument,' Kyi Win said.
Security was tight in Yangon Monday, with police trucks parked on standby, especially near the Supreme Court in central Yangon.
Myanmar has been under military rule since 1962. Its judiciary has a long record of bowing to military demands on controversial cases.
Suu Kyi, the winner of the 1990 Nobel Peace Prize, has spent 14 of the past 20 years under house arrest.
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