Suu Kyi launches detention appeal

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Lawyers for Burma's pro-democracy opposition leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, have launched an appeal against the extension of her house arrest.

Last month a court sentenced Ms Suu Kyi to a further 18 months for violating the terms of her detention by allowing an uninvited US man into her home.

The American, John Yettaw, was given a seven year sentence but freed at the intervention of a visiting US senator.

Ms Suu Kyi's detention means she cannot take part in elections next year.

'Wrong law'

"We submit the appeal because the judgment against Daw Aung San Suu Kyi was wrongful," one of her lawyers, Nyan Win, said.

Daw is a Burmese term of respect for a woman.

Nyan Win said the divisional court in Rangoon would decide on Friday whether to hear the appeal.

If the court does not accept the appeal, Nyan Win said the lawyers would appeal to the High Court.

Ms Suu Kyi's legal team argued at her trial that she was not guilty and that the law she was being tried under had been superseded by a new constitution approved in a controversial referendum last year.

"Altogether there are 11 reasons for the appeal, but the main thing we will point out is about the constitution," her chief lawyer Kyi Win said.

Her conviction was "not in accordance with the law", he added.

Her sentencing to a further term of house arrest in August drew widespread international condemnation.

Ms Suu Kyi, 64, a Nobel Peace laureate, has spent nearly 14 of the past 20 years in detention.

Her National League for Democracy won the last elections in 1990 but was never allowed to take power.