Myanmar's detained pro-democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi on Thursday described as "unfair" a minister's comment that she would be released in November as it pre-empted a court decision, her lawyer said.
Home Affairs Minister Maung Oo reportedly told a meeting of local officials in central Myanmar last week that the release of the 64-year-old, who has been in detention for 14 of the past 20 years, would come in November.
Suu Kyi "said the home affairs minister's comment was totally unfair," her lawyer, Nyan Win, told AFP after meeting her on Thursday.
A decision is expected from Myanmar's top court within three weeks on an appeal against her conviction last August. The conviction related to an incident in which a US man swam to her house and she was sentenced to another 18 months under house arrest.
"She said the case has not reached the end yet. She said the court has the right to make its own decision. Saying this is hurting the court decision," Nyan Win said. "She also said this comment is legally not correct."
The extension of Suu Kyi's detention sparked an international furore as it keeps her out of elections promised by the regime some time this year.
After learning of the minister's comments, her National League for Democracy (NLD) party initially said a November release would be "no strange thing" as that is when her sentence will be completed.
But the signal that she would remain locked up for elections sparked the United States on Tuesday to call again for her immediate freedom.
"The idea that her release will conveniently come after the election is unfortunate," State Department spokesman Philip Crowley told reporters.
The NLD won a landslide victory in the last democratic elections in 1990, but the junta, which has ruled Myanmar since 1962, never allowed the party to take office.
The opposition has been deeply suspicious of the election promised by the junta, seeing the poll as a plot to legitimise the generals' iron-fisted rule.
In recent months the United States, followed by the European Union, has shifted towards greater engagement with Myanmar, as sanctions have proved unproductive.
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