Brown 'saddened and angry' at Suu Kyi verdict

Gordon Brown said he was "saddened and angry" at the "monstrous" sentencing of Myanmar's opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi today to 18 months in detention.

The Prime Minister described the move by the army-ruled Burma as politically motivated to prevent her from taking part in planned elections next year.

"It is further proof that the military regime in Burma is determined to act with total disregard for accepted standards of the rule of law in defiance of international opinion," Brown said in a statement.

"The facade of her prosecution is made more monstrous because its real objective is to sever her bond with the people for whom she is a beacon of hope and resistance."

He called for the United Nations' Security Council to impose a worldwide ban on the sale of arms to the regime.

Suu Kyi was sentenced by a court today for violating an internal security law after an American swam uninvited to her lakeside home in May and stayed there for two days, breaching the terms of her house arrest.