Three brothers were each jailed for 36 years by a Malaysian court for an attack on the Burmese embassy in Kuala Lumpur, state media reported yesterday.

Abdul Fariyas Hardi, 46, Mohamad Salim, 42, and Muslim Salim, 39 - from Burma - were found guilty of the attempted murder of a Burmese envoy and committing mischief by causing damage to the embassy, Bernama said.

The men - who were arrested and detained after the attack in April 2004 - refused the judge's advice to make a plea of mitigation and maintained their innocence, the report said.

"You have been detained for nearly four years but you have not shown any remorse over the crimes you have committed," Judge Akhtar Tahir said, according to Bernama . They were sentenced to 18 years for each offence, to run consecutively from their day of arrest.

Diplomat wounded

In the incident, diplomat Khin Maung Lynn was hospitalised with severe wounds to his head and hands and the embassy, in the capital's Ampang diplomatic district, was gutted by fire.

The men, of Muslim Rohingyas origin, were believed to have been disgruntled after trying for several days to have their documents verified by embassy staff as they sought refugee status with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

The UNHCR had appointed two lawyers to represent the brothers but they subsequently dismissed their counsel, Bernama said.

The Malaysian government says there are about 25,644 Burmese asylum-seekers - mostly Rohingya Muslims - in the country but refugee groups believe the real figure is more than double that.

- AFP