YANGON, Myanmar - Myanmar's military junta extended the detention of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Tuesday, ignoring worldwide appeals to free the Nobel laureate who has been detained for more than 12 of the past 18 years, an official said.The duration of the extension was not immediately known, the official said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media. In the past, the junta has renewed Suu Kyi's detention for six-month or one-year periods. Suu Kyi was personally informed of her continued imprisonment by officials from the Home Ministry who entered her home prior to the announcement, the official said.
Suu Kyi, who has been under house arrest continuously since May 2003, has long been the symbol of the regime's brutality and the focus of a worldwide campaign that has lobbied for her release.
The extension was issued despite a Myanmar law that stipulates no one can be held longer than five years without being released or put on trial. Few expected Suu Kyi to be released, despite urging by both the United Nations and some members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
“Their failure to abide by their own law by refusing to release (Suu Kyi) ... is a clear slap in the face to (U.N. Secretary-General) Ban Ki-moon and the ASEAN diplomats," U.S. lawyer Jared Genser, hired by Suu Kyi's family to push for her release, said earlier this week. “They are out of time to hold her under their own law."