Myanmar’s jailed former leader Aung San Suu Kyi has been moved from prison to house arrest as a health measure due to a heat wave, the military government said as it freed more than 3,000 prisoners under an amnesty to mark this week’s traditional New Year holiday.
Aung San Suu Kyi, 78, and Win Myint, the 72-year-old former president of her ousted government, were among the elderly and infirm prisoners moved to house arrest because of the severe heat, military spokesperson Major General General Zaw Min Tun told foreign media representatives late on Tuesday.
The move had not been publicly announced in Myanmar.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Aung San Suu Kyi’s transfer comes as the army has been suffering a string of major defeats at the hands of resistance fighters and their allies in ethnic minority guerrilla forces.
The nationwide conflict began after the army ousted the elected government in February 2021, imprisoned Aung San Suu Kyi and began suppressing nonviolent protests that sought a return to democratic rule.
Aung San Suu Kyi had been serving a 27-year prison term in a specially built annex of the main prison in the capital, Naypyidaw, where Myanmar’s meteorological department said temperatures reached 39°C on Tuesday afternoon.
Win Myint was serving an eight-year prison sentence in Taungoo in Myanmar’s Bago region.
Aung San Suu Kyi’s health has reportedly deteriorated in prison.
In September last year, reports emerged that she had symptoms of low blood pressure, including dizziness and loss of appetite, but had been denied treatment at qualified facilities outside the prison system.
Those reports could not be independently confirmed, but her younger son Kim Aris said in interviews that he had heard that his mother had been extremely ill, and had gum problems and was unable to eat.
Kim Aris, who lives in the UK, called for Myanmar’s military government to be pressured to free his mother and other political prisoners.
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