Burma court rejects Suu Kyi appeal

A court in military-ruled Burma threw out opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi's latest bid for freedom today, rejecting an appeal against her house arrest sentence.

Ms Suu Kyi had appealed against her conviction in August for breaking terms of her last period of house arrest.

However, government sources said the Rangoon division court had ruled against the appeal.

Already in detention for about 14 of the last 20 years, Ms Suu Kyi was sentenced to another 18 months of house arrest for sheltering an uninvited American at her home for two days in May.

John Yettaw, the American sheltered by Nobel Peace Prize winner Ms Suu Kyi, had said he swam across a lake to her house because he wanted to warn her that he had a "vision" that she would be assassinated.

He was sentenced to seven years in prison but released on humanitarian grounds and deported to the US less than a week after the verdict.

Ms Suu Kyi's lawyer Nyan Win said before today's ruling that the defence would take the case to the supreme court if her appeal was rejected.

Security was tight today, with riot police ringing the court house.

In the appeal, Ms Suu Kyi's lawyers raised no new substantive arguments that had not been heard in the original district court trial.