Sentence of Dissident Aung San Suu Kyi Upheld in Junta-Ruled Myanmar

Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi will apparently remain under house arrest for at least another year, her lawyer says, after the Supreme Court of the country also known as Burma turned down her latest appeal.

Suu Kyi, who has been held by the country's military junta for 14 years, was convicted last August of violating the terms of her previous detention by giving shelter to an American man who swam uninvited to her lakeside home.

Her defense lawyer, Nyan Win, said he would make one more "special appeal" to Myanmar's Supreme Court, the Washington Post reported.

"Although the decision comes as no surprise, it is deeply disappointing," said British Ambassador Andrew Heyn, who attended the court proceeding with American, French and Australian diplomats. "We continue to believe that [Suu Kyi] should be released immediately along with the other 2,000 and more . . . prisoners of conscience."

Suu Kyi's political party, the National League for Democracy, won elections in the Southeast Asian country in 1990, but the military would not give up power. The junta has said it will hold elections later this year, but Suu Kyi would likely still be in detention and unable to take part.