Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi ‘moved to house arrest’ after more than a year in jail

Myanmar’s ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi will be moved to house arrest from prison after she was arrested by the junta during the 2021 coup, according to reports.

The 78-year-old Nobel laureate has been in detention ever since the junta overthrew her democratically elected government in a coup in February 2021 and sentenced her to 33 years in prison after convicting her on a range of charges brought by the military government.

An official in the capital Naypyitaw told the Associated Press that she will be moved to house arrest and that the military government is set to make the announcement during the consecration ceremony of a newly constructed colossal sitting Buddha statue.

Her transfer was an act of clemency to prisoners as part of the religious ceremony which is due next week, the official said on the condition of anonymity.

It is not clear where she would be moved or when.

The BBC Burmese-language service reported that she may have been already transferred to a house used by government officials, citing a “source close to the prison”.

She may have been assigned to a residence assigned to a deputy minister-level cabinet official in Naypyitaw, the report said.

“News of improvements in conditions is welcome, but does not change her status as a prisoner of conscience,” said Kyaw Zaw, a spokesperson for the shadow National Unity Government.

Following the coup and her arrest, Ms Suu Kyi was initially held at her official residence in the capital in house arrest before being moved to an undisclosed location widely believed to be on an army base. She was again transferred, this time to prison on 22 June 2022.

It comes as information in the military-run government is tightly controlled and even her lawyers are banned by a gag order from sharing information or talking to the media about her cases.

Last month, Thailand leader Don Pramudwinai became the first foreign envoy to be granted access to meet the Nobel laureate ever since she was detained.

He said Ms Suu Kyi was in good health and she conveyed her willingness to engage in talks to resolve the Myanmar crisis.

Known and beloved in much of Myanmar as “the Lady”, Ms Suu Kyi helped establish Myanmar’s first civilian government in half a century and fulfilled the dreams of millions when her party won a landslide election in 2015.

The daughter of independence hero Aung San, who was assassinated in 1947 when she was only two years old, she won the Nobel Peace Prize for campaigning for democracy in 1991.

Her rule, however, has been marred by accusations that her nation’s armed forces raped, killed and terrorised hundreds of thousands of Muslim Rohingya people during a campaign of ethnic cleansing in Rakhine state.

She was first put under house arrest in 1989 by the junta and after huge protests against decades of military rule, she was only fully released in 2010.