Myanmar military planning to move Suu Kyi from prison to house arrest
Bangkok, Jul 26 (EFE).- Myanmar’s military junta is planning to transfer the country’s ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi from prison to house arrest, sources familiar with the matter told EFE on Wednesday.
The military junta may move Suu Kyi to a residence in Yangon, the country’s largest city where she had already spent 15 years in confinement in a house over the past four decades under previous military regimes, sources said on the condition of anonymity.
The junta has not officially confirmed the news.
The 78-year-old Nobel peace laureate has been in detention since February 2021 when the military junta seized power from her elected government in a coup that ended a decade of nascent democracy in the country.
Suu Kyi has been sentenced to 33 years in prison after being convicted of a range of charges including election fraud and corruption. Her lawyers have denied these charges.
Earlier this month the leader’s lawyers appealed against various sentences in cases such as violation of the pandemic laws and illegal possession of walkie-talkies.
Suu Kyi, who has been known for her nonviolent struggle for democracy in Myanmar, had already spent a decade and a half under house arrest during the previous military junta regimes between 1989 and 2011.
The military coup led by General Min Aung Hlaing has plunged Myanmar into a deep political, social and economic crisis and triggered a spiral of violence as new anti-junta militias have exacerbated the country’s decades-long ethnic conflicts.
The military junta justified the coup citing alleged electoral fraud during the 2020 elections, which Suu Kyi’s party had won overwhelmingly, as she did in 2015, with the endorsement of international observers. EFE
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