Suu Kyi moved to house arrest in Naypyidaw as lawyers plan visit
Lawyers plan Sunday talks with Myanmar's detained former leader, who was shifted from prison custody to house arrest in Naypyidaw.
- Former Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi has been moved from prison to house arrest in the capital, Naypyidaw.
- Her legal team is preparing to visit her this weekend to discuss her position and deliver supplies.
- The transfer follows two recent reductions to her prison sentence, the latest of which occurred just before the move was announced.
- Suu Kyi, a Nobel laureate, has been detained since the military overthrew her government in a February 2021 coup.
Aung San Suu Kyi’s lawyers are preparing to see the detained former Myanmar leader this weekend, after the military-backed authorities moved her to house arrest in the capital, a representative said on Friday (May 1).
The 80-year-old Nobel laureate has been held since February 2021, when the military overthrew her civilian administration. The coup plunged much of the impoverished Southeast Asian country into a deadly civil war, while Suu Kyi’s exact location had remained unclear.
“Daw Aung San Suu Kyi is currently still in Naypyidaw,” a member of her legal team told Reuters, using the honorific for the veteran politician. The representative confirmed that she had been transferred to house arrest on Thursday night.
State media said on Thursday that Suu Kyi would be placed under house arrest, but did not specify the location. It also aired a photograph showing her sitting on a wooden bench beside two uniformed personnel, marking the first public image of her in years.
Her lawyers are expected to meet her on Sunday to discuss her position and deliver supplies.
“The situation has shifted. I think it will no longer be just a standard prison visit, but rather a meeting where the legal team will go and discuss matters with her,” the legal representative said.
Following the coup, Suu Kyi was convicted in a series of closed-door trials and initially sentenced to 33 years in prison on charges including corruption, inciting election fraud and breaching state secrecy rules. Her allies have rejected the cases as politically driven and intended to remove her from the political scene.
Her sentence was later cut to 27 years. It was then reduced by one-sixth under a Myanmar New Year amnesty on April 17, which also freed her ally and co-defendant Win Myint, the former president.
On Thursday, her term was reduced by another one-sixth as part of a broader prisoner amnesty in Myanmar’s jails, shortly before the authorities announced her move to house arrest.
Myanmar’s junta chief-turned-president, Min Aung Hlaing, who led the coup, has continued to face international demands to release political prisoners since a recent election, including pressure from ASEAN. He is seeking to rebuild ties with the Southeast Asian bloc after Myanmar was barred from its summits over the coup.
Suu Kyi, the daughter of independence hero General Aung San, previously spent a total of 15 years under house arrest during an earlier junta era at her family home beside Yangon’s Inya Lake. From there, she famously addressed crowds of supporters through the property’s metal gates.
Reuters
