The court handed down a three-year prison term for violation of an internal security law. But that was immediately halved on the orders of the military government, which said the 64-year-old Nobel peace laureate could serve the time in her Yangon home.
Burma's home minister, Major-General Muang Oo, told the court moments after the verdict it had taken into account that Suu Kyi was the daughter of Burma independence hero Aung San as well as "the need to preserve community peace and tranquillity" as the country prepares for multiparty elections next year.
The verdict drew criticism from leaders around the world. Britain's Prime Minister Gordon Brown called it "monstrous". French President Nicolas Sarkozy said it was "brutal and unjust".
The 27-country European Union is preparing sanctions against Burma that include restricting trade with state-owned firms and barring top junta officials from entering the bloc, Sweden said.
Sarkozy said the measures "should particularly target the resources it profits directly from—wood and ruby mining".
Legitimacy of Elections
"She should not have been tried, and she should not have been convicted," U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said.
Burma authorities should begin an immediate dialogue with the opposition, Clinton told reporters on her trip to the Democratic Republic of Congo. "Otherwise the elections they have scheduled will have absolutely no legitimacy."
Critics say the case was fabricated by the military to keep the charismatic Suu Kyi out of circulation ahead of the polls.
The charges stemmed from a mysterious incident in which an American, John Yettaw, swam to her lakeside home in May and stayed there uninvited for two days, which breached the terms of her house arrest and broke a security law protecting the state from "subversive elements".
Yettaw, who was hospitalised last week after suffering seizures, was sentenced to seven years' hard labour in a parallel trial on three charges, including immigration offences and "swimming in a non-swimming area".
His lawyer said the American suffers from epilepsy, diabetes and heart trouble. Yettaw, a Mormon, told the court God had sent him to warn Suu Kyi she would be assassinated by "terrorists".
The reduced sentence for Suu Kyi, who has spent 14 of the past 20 years in detention, may have been an attempt to appease Burma's friends and neighbours—China, India and Thailand, in particular—whose trade has propped up a state crippled by international sanctions.
Calibrated Verdict
"This is a very calibrated verdict in that everybody knows that the West is going to be unhappy," said Ian Holliday, a Burma analyst from the University of Hong Kong.
"The regime is calculating that by commuting it down to one-and-a-half years and by allowing her to serve in her home rather than in prison, most Asian states will be prepared to go along with that."
Reflecting that assessment, Singapore's foreign ministry said in a statement it was "disappointed" by the guilty verdict.
"We are, however, happy that the Burma Government has exercised its sovereign prerogative to grant amnesty for half her sentence and that she will be placed under house arrest rather than imprisoned."
The hearings were held in Yangon's Insein Prison amid tight security, with at least 2,000 security personnel in the area.
