Myanmar’s former chief Aung San Suu Kyi was detained following a navy coup in 2021.
Aung Shine Oo/AP
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Aung Shine Oo/AP
Myanmar’s former chief Aung San Suu Kyi was detained following a navy coup in 2021.
Aung Shine Oo/AP
BANGKOK — Myanmar’s navy junta has transferred deposed chief Aung San Suu Kyi from jail to deal with arrest, state broadcaster MRTV introduced Thursday – a transfer her son is asking a “calculated gesture” reasonably than an indication of real progress.
Suu Kyi, 80, has been held in detention for the reason that navy seized energy in a February 2021 coup, toppling the democratically elected authorities she led. She was sentenced to 27 years in jail on what are broadly condemned as fabricated costs of corruption and electoral fraud.
The order to switch her got here from Min Aung Hlaing, the overall who led the coup and organized to be sworn on this month as Myanmar’s civilian president following an election that excluded her dissolved occasion, the Nationwide League for Democracy. The election was broadly dismissed as a sham.
A press release from his workplace stated he had “commuted the remaining sentence” of Suu Kyi “to be served at the designated residence.”
Undisclosed location
The placement of that residence has not been disclosed.
Nay Telephone Latt, spokesperson for Myanmar’s parallel anti-junta administration, the Nationwide Unity Authorities, informed NPR she had not been returned to her Naypyidaw house.
“Where is she?” he stated. “This is not hard evidence that Daw Aung San Suu Kyi is alive, nor is it an unconditional release of our leader.”
A separate amnesty on April 17 had already decreased Suu Kyi’s sentence by one-sixth, bringing her remaining time period to 18 years and 9 months.
The secrecy surrounding her new location alarms her son, Kim Aris. The announcement was accompanied by a video nonetheless of a smiling Suu Kyi sitting alongside two officers — a picture Aris believes dates to 2022, from the trial course of.
“Moving her from a prison to a secret location does not mean freedom,” he stated. “She remains a hostage, completely cut off from the world and under the absolute control of those who continue to unlawfully detain her.”
In a press release launched Thursday night and shared with NPR, Aris additionally advised the timing was not coincidental, coming shortly after public statements from the Chinese language authorities relating to his mom’s standing.
He described the strikes as “calculated gestures designed to ease international pressure and create the illusion of change, while the reality on the ground remains brutal and unchanged.”
Aris stated he had but to obtain any affirmation of his mom’s wellbeing from an authoritative supply.
“I still do not know where my mother is. I do not know how she is. I remain deeply concerned about whether she is still alive,” he stated. “If she is alive, I ask for proof of life.”
His enchantment extends past his mom – 1000’s of political prisoners stay incarcerated throughout Myanmar.
Till now, uncommon glimpses into Suu Kyi’s detention had painted a troubling image. Footage revealed by the Guardian in June 2025 — dated August and December 2022 — confirmed her showing in a makeshift courtroom alongside deposed president Win Myint throughout military-run corruption trials condemned by the U.N., U.S. and the EU as politically motivated.
Leaked jail logs overlaying days in January and February 2024 revealed a regimented life inside a specifically constructed detention facility in Naypyidaw, the place she was held in solitary confinement, remoted from the surface world as a civil warfare engulfed her nation.
The information additionally raised issues about her well being, detailing medicines she receives for a spread of points. Entry to the surface world was strictly managed, with solely uncommon supervised visits from her authorized crew.
