Suu Kyi sentence extended

A Myanmar court on Tuesday convicted the 64-year-old Nobel Peace laureate of violating her house arrest by allowing an uninvited America...

A Myanmar court on Tuesday convicted the 64-year-old Nobel Peace laureate of violating her house arrest by allowing an uninvited American to stay at her home. Her sentence of three years in prison with hard labor was quickly commuted to 18 months house arrest after an order from the head of the military-ruled country, Senior Gen. Than Shwe.

Suu Kyi has been in detention for 14 of the last 20 years, and the extension will remove her from the political scene next year when the junta holds its first election since 1990. Her party won in the polls then but was never allowed to take power.

Her conviction and continued detention were condemned by world leaders and sparked demonstrations from London to Japan.

The European Union began preparing new sanctions against the country's military regime and a group of 14 Nobel Laureates, including the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, called on the U.N. Security Council to take strong action against the country.

President Barack Obama termed Suu Kyi's conviction a violation of "the universal principle of human rights." US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton called for the 2,000 political prisoners, including John Yettaw, the American Suu Kyi was charged with harboring. He was convicted sentenced to seven years' imprisonment with hard labor.

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