Aung San Suu Kyi will not be allowed to appear in court in person during the appeal against her 18-month house arrest extension. Aung San Suu Kyi’s detention was extended after she was convicted of breaching security laws by allowing an uninvited US man into her home.

Ms Suu Kyi has spent 14 of the last 20 years in detention. The latest sentence has drawn international condemnation, and means she cannot take part in elections next year.

Meanwhile, a Human Rights Watch (HRW) report states that the number of political prisoners in Burma’s notorious jails has doubled in the two years, since the 2007 ‘Saffron Uprisings’ dramtically captured in the footage of Burma VJ.

According to HRW there are more than 2,200 people jailed for their beliefs in 43 jails, often held in solitary confinement in small, dark cells.

To find out more about the conditions faced by political prisoners in Burma, read our guest-blog post “Burmese hell holes”.

Read the full BBC news article here.