Burma: Former leader Aung San Suu Kyi was taken from her cell and moved to a house

She has been in prison since the 2021 military coup. Former Burmese government chief Aung San Suu Kyi was taken from her cell and moved to a house, an official source said on Wednesday. She did not specify whether it was house arrest or a reduced sentence, but the 78-year-old Nobel Peace Prize laureate should “receive care due to the heat,” according to junta spokesman Zaw Min Tun.

At the end of December 2022, Aung San Suu Kyi was sentenced to 33 years in prison on a number of charges including corruption, possession of illegal walkie-talkies and failure to comply with Covid restrictions. Human rights groups say the accusations are unfounded. The party she founded, the National League for Democracy (NLD), easily won the 2020 election, but the army used allegations that millions of incorrect ballots were found during voting, unverified by international observers, to take power.

“Good morale”

His sentence was then reduced by six years in August 2023, bringing it to 27 years. The figure of Burma’s democracy has been seen only once since she was arrested following the Feb. 1, 2021, coup, in low-quality photographs taken by state media inside a courtroom in Naypyidaw, the capital built in the jungle. army.

She remains in “good morale” while incarcerated, her son Kim Aris, who received his first letter from his mother in three years in early January, said Feb. 6. It was “the first real evidence I had (…) that she was still alive,” his son assured him by phone from London, where he lives. “She sent her love to the whole family,” he continued, explaining that his mother thanked him for the support package he sent at the end of the year.

During the trial, local media reported that the “Lady of Rangoon” suffered from dizziness and vomiting, and was at times unable to eat due to a tooth infection. In September 2023, the NLD accused the junta of endangering Aung San Suu Kyi’s life by denying her the medical care she needed. According to Kim Aris, who included medication and vitamin-rich food in a package sent to her mother, she continues to suffer from dental problems.

At the same time, the ruling junta announced this Wednesday an amnesty for 3,300 prisoners on the occasion of the Burmese New Year. The remaining prisoners are given a one-sixth reduction in sentence, with the exception of those convicted of murder, terrorism and drug trafficking, the press release clarifies.