Myanmar democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi is ordered to stay under house arrest for a further 18 months.

The Nobel laureate was found guilty of violating an internal security law, a ruling certain to anger the West and further isolate the regime.

The charges stemmed from a mysterious incident in which an American, John Yettaw, swam uninvited to her lakeside home in May and stayed there for two days, breaching the terms of her house arrest.

The court sentenced Suu Kyi to three years in prison but that was immediately reduced to 18 months on the orders of the military government, which said she could serve the time in her Yangon home.

A guilty verdict had been widely expected in a case critics say was fabricated by the military regime to keep Suu Kyi out of circulation ahead of a general election scheduled for next year.

American John Yettaw, 54, the man who swam to her house, was sentenced to seven years of hard labour and imprisonment on three separate charges but it was not clear if the terms would run consecutively or concurrently. 

Minister Maung Oo made a surprise entrance to the courtroom just minutes after the verdict was read out, saying that Suu Kyi would be taken back to her house under similar conditions to her previous time in detention. 

Suu Kyi has already been in detention for 14 of the past 20 years since Myanmar's ruling military junta refused to recognise her National League for Democracy's landslide victory in elections in 1990. 

The military has ruled the impoverished nation with an iron fist since 1962. 

Suu Kyi's lawyers argued during the trial that she could not be held responsible for Yettaw's actions, and that the legal framework for her initial detention at her house was under a 1975 law that has been superseded by later constitutions. 

Suu Kyi told the court that she did not report the American to the authorities for humanitarian reasons. The junta says she gave food, shelter and assistance to Yettaw, who has diabetes. 

Yettaw, a Mormon whose teenage son died two years ago in a motorbike crash, had testified that he swam to her house after receiving a "message from God" that he must protect Suu Kyi against a terrorist plot to assassinate her.

He got three years for breaching security laws, three years for immigration violations and one year for a municipal charge of illegal swimming. 

Consequences:
- Western powers will immediately condemn the junta and demand the immediate release of Suu Kyi from house detention. However, the generals have repeatedly shown they are impervious to criticism and are unlikely to budge for anyone, not even the United Nations. 

Nevertheless, by giving her the minimums sentence and then cutting it in half -- and allowing her to serve it at home -- the junta may have hoped to make itself look lenient in the eyes of the outside world.

- The detention will keep Suu Kyi out of circulation ahead of a general election scheduled for next year, in theory undermining any challenge from the opposition.
 
- U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton extended an olive branch to the generals to boost ties with Myanmar, including investment, if it improved its human rights record and released Suu Kyi. The verdict could therefore prompt Washington to re-think its more reconciliatory approach.
 
- Threats of more sanctions on Myanmar could ensue, which would further isolate a country the international community has worked hard to engage. Critics says sanctions have failed because neighbouring China, India and Thailand continue to do business with the generals.
 
- With diplomatic efforts exhausted, analysts say the United Nations could step up pressure on Myanmar by threatening a Security Council resolution, or legal action in the International Court of Justice over its poor human rights record.
 
- The junta will be on guard for a possible uprising among supporters of the hugely popular Suu Kyi, raising the possibility of a crackdown on protesters by a regime that has never been afraid to use brutal force on its own people.

Photo: Flickr (Gilberto Viciedo)
Source: AFP, ANP, Reuters