NLD hopeful for Suu Kyi's release after appeal made

       The party of Burma opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi said yesterday it was hopeful that she would be unconditionally released after a court agreed to hear an appeal against her recent conviction.
       Lawyers for the Nobel laureate and the country's ruling junta are due to present legal arguments on Sept 18, after Mrs Suu Kyi challenged last month's guilty verdict for sheltering an American man who swam to her lakeside home.
       The regime has ordered her to spend another 18 months under house arrest,softening the original sentence of three years' hard labour. But the order still keeps her off the political scene during elections scheduled for 2010.
       "There could be changes as the court has accepted our appeal," said Nyan Win, her lawyer and a spokesman for her National League for Democracy (NLD), referring to Rangoon divisional court's decision on Friday to hear the case."We are hoping for her unconditional release, which is also what we wanted," he said.
       "We will meet with Daw Aung San Suu Kyi this week after we get permission from the authorities. We need to get last instructions from her for the final arguments," Nyan Win said. Daw is a term of respect in Burmese.
       The appeal would focus on the fact that a 1974 constitution under which the 64-year-old was originally detained had been superseded by a new constitution approved last year, her lawyers have said.
       The guilty verdict sparked international outrage and the imposition of further sanctions against Burma's powerful generals, who have already kept Mrs Suu Kyi locked up for 14 of the past 20 years.
       Mrs Suu Kyi insisted on her innocence during the trial held at Rangoon's notorious Insein Prison, saying that she allowed US military veteran John Yettaw to stay for two nights at her home because he was ill.
       Mr Yettaw was sentenced to seven years' hard labour for the stunt in early May, but was freed after a visit by US Senator Jim Webb last month on what the military regime said were compassionate grounds because of health problems.
       The move raised expectations of a possible thaw in the tense relations between Burma and the United States.
       Meanwhile, the NLD called on the ruling junta yesterday to allow it to reopen its branch offices, which would be crucial for taking part in next year's planned national elections.
       The NLD issued a statement saying the party had sent a letter to junta chairman Senior General Than Shwe on Friday noting that the party is a legally registered organisation but that its local offices had been sealed and its activities restricted by the government.