Myanmar: SC rejects Suu Kyi's appeal for release

Yangon, Feb 26: In a predictable outcome to the appeal to end the 14 years house arrest of Myanmar's opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, the Supreme court on Friday, Feb 26 rejected the plea, diplomats said.

Earlier, Suu Kyi lawyers said that they would launch a 'special appeal' before the Supreme Court if their plea was turned down.

The Friday, Feb 26 session was attended by diplomats from Australia, France, Great Britain and the United States, who citing the protocol for anonymity, briefed reporters waiting outside the Court about the verdict.

On Nov 2009, the lawyers of the Nobel Peace Prize laureate moved the Court after the decision to sentence Suu Kyi to 18 months of house arrest was upheld by a lower court on Oct 2009.

She was convicted for violating the terms of her previous detention by briefly providing shelter to an American who had swam to her lakeside home on Aug 2009.

Suu Kyi was initially sentenced to three years of imprisonment with rigorous labour, but it was later changed to 18 months house arrest by the junta chief Senior Gen. Than Shwe following global outcry against the sentencing.

She has served fourteen years out of the twenty years house arrest.

Despite, her party National League for Democracy having a landslide victory in the election in 1990, the military, which has been ruling Myanmar since 1962, refused to step down.

The military has obstructed her party's activities for the past two decades.

OneIndia News