Burma's democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi and her US co-defendant are to appeal against their convictions, lawyers say, as the ruling junta faced a global wave of anger over her extended detention.
US President Barack Obama led worldwide outrage at the military regime's decision on Tuesday to give Suu Kyi another 18 months of house arrest, a verdict that shuts the Nobel peace laureate out of elections next year.
The UN Security Council broke up an emergency meeting with no condemnation of the ruling generals, but Burma's Asian neighbours issued a rare expression of disappointment at the opposition leader's sentence.
In Rangoon yesterday, Suu Kyi's lawyer, Nyan Win, said her legal team would appeal because they were ''not satisfied'' with the judgement, which stemmed from a stunt in which American man John Yettaw swam to her lakeside house in May.
A prison court sentenced her to three years of hard labour after finding her guilty of breaching the terms of her detention, but junta strongman Than Shwe commuted the punishment to 112 years under house arrest.
Nyan Win said, ''We assume that the judgement is totally wrong according to the law,'' adding he had received Suu Kyi's approval to proceed and could do so yesterday if they received a copy of the judgement.
Police and security forces blocked off the road outside her house yesterday.
Lawyers for Yettaw, who was sentenced to seven years of hard labour and imprisonment, would appeal ''step-by-step'' through Burma's court system and if necessary urge Than Shwe to deport him, lawyer Khin Maung Oo said.
He said Yettaw was ''very calm'' and ''hopes for the best''.
Suu Kyi has been confined for 14 of the past 20 years, ever since the military regime refused to recognise her National League for Democracy's landslide victory in the last elections, held in 1990.
The 64-year-old's health has worsened but the junta has apparently timed her sentence so that she will be locked up during next year's multi-party polls, seen as a means of legitimising the generals' grip on power.
The Association of South-East Asian Nations, of which Burma is a member, added to the global chorus of dismay, expressing ''deep disappointment'' in a statement issued by Thailand, the present chair of the bloc.
It also urged Burma to immediately release Suu Kyi. But it said the 10-nation group, which has been criticised in the past for failing to tackle the junta, would ''remain constructively engaged with Burma''.
In the United States, Mr Obama called for Suu Kyi's ''immediate, unconditional release'' and for the freeing of more than 2000 other political prisoners held in Burma.
He said the unjust sentence against Suu Kyi would never be able to stamp out the Burmese people's desire for freedom, accusing the junta of ''continued disregard'' for UN Security Council statements.
But the Security Council, which counts Burma's allies and military suppliers China and Russia among its five veto-wielding members, failed to sign off on a US-drafted statement condemning the verdict on Suu Kyi.
Britain's United Nations ambassador, John Sawers, said some delegations insisted on sending the draft statement to their capitals for instructions and that debate would resume today.
China urged the international community yesterday to ''fully respect Burma's judicial sovereignty'', Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown denounced the ''sham trial'' and French President Nicolas Sarkozy called for more sanctions, which the European Union vowed to implement.
UN chief Ban Ki-moon said he was ''deeply disappointed'' by the Suu Kyi verdict.
''"Unless she and all other political prisoners in Burma are released and allowed to participate in free and fair elections, the credibility of the political process will remain in doubt.'' AFP
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