UNITED NATIONS - UN CHIEF Ban Ki Moon is 'disappointed' Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi's appeal against her extended house arrest was dismissed, his press office said on Friday.
'The Secretary General is disappointed to learn that Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's appeal against her continued house arrest was again rejected today,' a UN statement said.
Mr Ban 'reiterates his call for the release of all political prisoners and their free participation in the political process,' calling them 'essential steps for national reconciliation and democratic transition in Myanmar,' according to the statement.
Earlier on Friday, Myanmar's Supreme Court rejected an appeal by Ms Suu Kyi's lawyer, keeping the pro-democracy icon and Nobel peace prize laureate in detention ahead of polls promised by the junta for this year.
The opposition leader, locked up by the regime for most of the past two decades, had her incarceration lengthened by 18 months in August after being convicted over a bizarre incident in which a US man swam to her lakeside home.
Ms Suu Kyi has been in jail or under house arrest for 14 of the last 20 years since the country's last elections in 1990, which the NLD won by a landslide. The junta then prevented the party from taking power. -- AFP
Source :http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/SEAsia/Story/STIStory_495697.html
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