Nobel Peace Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi was sentenced today to an additional 18 months under house arrest. Suu Kyi was charged with breaching the terms of her house arrest when she offered temporary shelter to an American after he swam to her lakeside home uninvited.

Initially, the court sentenced Suu Kyi to three years imprisonment involving hard labour, but the Burmese military regime announced to the court that they would be reducing her sentence.

Critics have continually charged that Suu Kyi’s trial and ongoing detention are attempts by the military junta to keep her out of Burma’s 2010 national elections.

Suu Kyi has already been under house arrest for 14 of the last 20 years. The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detentions (UNWGAD), an arm of the UN Human Rights Council, ruled the arrest and detention of Suu Kyi illegal, stating that, “The latest renewal (2008) of the order to place Ms. Suu Kyi under house arrest not solely violates international law but also national domestic laws of Myanmar.

In response to Aung San Suu Kyi’s verdict, 14 Nobel Peace Laureates released an open letter to the UN Security Council, calling on the UN body to establish a Commission of Inquiry on Burma.

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Pressuring the Burmese junta, New York Times Op-Ed, 12 August 2009.

Myanmar’s Suu Kyi says conviction ‘totally unfair’, Associated Press, 12 August 2009.

Myanmar court convicts Suu Kyi of violating terms of house arrest, LA Times, 11 August 2009.

Locked up, The Economist, 11 August 2009.

Than Shwe’s ‘mercy’ is meaningless, The Irrawaddy, 11 August 2009.

Aung San Suu Kyi verdict: Burmese views, BBC, 11 August 2009.

Read more about Aung San Suu Kyi and Burma’s struggle for democracy.

Support a Global Arms Embargo against the Burmese regime.