- Writer: AFP
- Published: 12/08/2009 at 11:00 AM
Burma pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and US national John Yettaw will both lodge appeals against the ruling junta's decision to convict them, their lawyers said Wednesday.
Protestors demonstrate outside the embassy of Burma in London. Suu Kyi and US national John Yettaw will both lodge appeals against Burma's decision to convict them, their lawyers said Wednesday.
Suu Kyi's house arrest was prolonged for another 18 months on Tuesday, sparking international outrage, while her co-defendant Yettaw was sentenced to seven years of hard labour and imprisonment.
Suu Kyi's lawyer Nyan Win said her legal team would appeal because they were "not satisfied" with the judgement, which stemmed from an incident in which Yettaw swam uninvited to Suu Kyi's lakeside home in May.
"We assume that the judgement is totally wrong according to the law," said Nyan Win, adding that he had received approval from Suu Kyi to go ahead with the appeal.
He said they could begin the process Wednesday if they received a copy of the judgement.
Judges originally sentenced Suu Kyi to three years of hard labour and imprisonment, but Than Shwe, head of Burma's military regime, the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), signed a special order commuting the sentence.
He ordered her to serve out 18 months under house arrest.
Yettaw's lawyer Khin Maung Oo they would also appeal "step-by-step" to the Burma court system. If necessary he said "we will write to the chairman of the SPDC for Mr Yettaw to be deported."
He said Yettaw was "very calm" and "hopes for the best."
US President Barack Obama led a global wave of condemnation over Aung San Suu Kyi's extended detention, which effectively rules her out of Burma's elections scheduled for 2010.
The Nobel peace laureate has been confined for nearly 14 the past 20 years, ever since the military regime refused to recognise her National League for Democracy's landslide victory in the last elections held in 1990.
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