Aung San Suu Kyi will not be able to participate in next year's election because of the verdict [AFP]
Lawyers for Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar's detained opposition leader, have said they will file an appeal next week against the criminal conviction that extended her house arrest by another 18 months.
Early this month a Myanmar district court found her guilty of violating the terms of her detention by sheltering an uninvited American visitor after he swam to her lakeside home.
The detention order prevents Aung San Suu Kyi from contesting in general election's planned by Myanmar's military government for next year.
Nyan Win, one of the lawyers, said they met Aung San Suu Kyi, 64, for two hours on Thursday afternoon to finalise details of her appeal which will be submitted to the Divisional Court in Yangon early next week.
The Nobel peace laureate was initially sentenced to three years in prison with hard labour.
But the sentence was later reduced to 18 months house arrest on the orders of Senior General Than Shwe, the head of the country's military government.
The American, John Yettaw, who was sentenced to seven years in prison, was released on humanitarian grounds and deported on August 16.
Aung San Suu Kyi has been detained for about 14 of the past 20 years for her political activities but this year was the first time she faced criminal charges.
Her party, the National League for Democracy, swept elections in 1990 but the results were rejected by the military, which has ruled Myanmar since 1962.
Source: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia-pacific/2009/08/20098284314381600.html
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