Suu Kyi kept under poor conditions in Myanmar prison: report

Singapore, Jul 22 (EFE).- Ousted Myanmar leader and Nobel Peace Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, 77, has been kept in a solitary prison cell which is not sufficiently protected from weather elements and is not being given the food she requires, resulting in weight loss, a report claimed on Friday.

Independent newspaper Myanmar Now cited three sources aware of the situation in a report on the prison conditions faced by Suu Kyi, who had been the de-facto leader of the country when the military seized power in a coup on Feb. 1, 2021 and later arrested her and other government figures.

As per the report, Suu Kyi is housed in a prison cell in Naypyidaw in which only three out of the six windows can be fully shut, exposing her to rains and high temperatures.

An anonymous source added that the leader was not being given sufficient or healthy food.

Suu Kyi has been kept under solitary confinement for over a month on the orders of the military junta.

In multiple closed-door hearings carried out by a military junta court, the leader was sentenced to 11 years in prison and was transferred to a prison in the capital in late June after having been kept under house-arrest at an undisclosed location since the coup.

At the time, junta spokesperson Zaw Min Tun had confirmed to EFE that Suu Kyi had been sent to a prison where she would be kept isolated from other inmates.

The leader, who was seen in a prison uniform earlier, also faces more than a dozen other charges including corruption and violating the Official Secrets Act, which are punishable by over 150 years in prison.

With the coup, Myanmar was thrown into a grave political, social, and economic crisis, which has sparked a spiral of bloodshed involving new militia groups, exacerbating decades of guerrilla conflict.

The army justifies the coup on alleged massive fraud during the general elections of November 2020, whose result was annulled and in which Suu Kyi’s party won a landslide victory, as it did in 2015, with the endorsement of international observers.

At least 2,111 people, have died as a result of the brutal repression carried out by police and soldiers, who have even shot to kill peaceful and unarmed protesters, according to data collected by the Myanmar NGO Association for the Assistance of Political Prisoners. An estimated 15,000 dissidents have been imprisoned since the coup according to the AAPP. EFE

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