No bidders yesterday appeared at a court-ordered auction of the family home of Myanmar’s imprisoned former leader Aung San Suu Kyi, where she had been held under house arrest for nearly 15 years, legal officials said.
Many in Myanmar view the house as a historical landmark of Aung San Suu Kyi’s nonviolent struggle against military rule for which she won the Nobel Peace Prize.
A court in January ordered the house and 0.78-hectare property in Yangon to be sold with a minimum price of 315 billion kyats (US$150.2 million), with the proceeds to be split between Aung San Suu Kyi and her estranged older brother. Her lawyers had challenged the auction order.
Photo: AP
The auction was held in front of the closed gates of the lakeside property, which has served as an unofficial party headquarters and a political shrine for the country’s pro-democracy movement. While living there, Aung San Suu Kyi hosted visiting dignitaries including former US president Barack Obama, former US secretary of state Hillary Clinton and former UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon.
Aung San Suu Kyi, 78, is serving a 27-year prison sentence in a series of cases brought by the military, which seized power from her elected government in February 2021.
Her supporters and independent analysts say the cases are an attempt to discredit her and legitimize the military’s seizure of power.
“I want to announce that the auction is unsuccessful as there is no bidder,” a district court official who did not identify herself announced outside the gate.
A man by her side struck a small gong, and a second man said: “The auction event has ended.”
A lawyer familiar with the legal proceedings, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release information, said the court would continue to handle the case, but the details are not yet known.
The court-ordered auction followed a bitter decades-long legal dispute between Aung San Suu Kyi and her brother, Aung San Oo, who has sought an equal division of the property.
Aung San Oo first sued in 2000 for a partition of the property, but his complaint was dismissed in January 2001 on procedural grounds. He returned to court repeatedly over the following two decades to press his claims.
In August 2022, after the army seized power, the Supreme Court decided to have the property sold by auction.
A new online voting system aimed at boosting turnout among the Philippines’ millions of overseas workers ahead of Monday’s mid-term elections has been marked by confusion and fears of disenfranchisement. Thousands of overseas Filipino workers have already cast their ballots in the race dominated by a bitter feud between President Ferdinand Marcos Jr and his impeached vice president, Sara Duterte. While official turnout figures are not yet publicly available, data from the Philippine Commission on Elections (COMELEC) showed that at least 134,000 of the 1.22 million registered overseas voters have signed up for the new online system, which opened on April 13. However,
ALLIES: Calling Putin his ‘old friend,’ Xi said Beijing stood alongside Russia ‘in the face of the international counter-current of unilateralism and hegemonic bullying’ Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) yesterday was in Moscow for a state visit ahead of the Kremlin’s grand Victory Day celebrations, as Ukraine accused Russia’s army of launching air strikes just hours into a supposed truce. More than 20 foreign leaders were in Russia to attend a vast military parade today marking 80 years since the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II, taking place three years into Russia’s offensive in Ukraine. Putin ordered troops into Ukraine in February 2022 and has marshaled the memory of Soviet victory against Nazi Germany to justify his campaign and rally society behind the offensive,
ENTERTAINMENT: Rio officials have a history of organizing massive concerts on Copacabana Beach, with Madonna’s show drawing about 1.6 million fans last year Lady Gaga on Saturday night gave a free concert in front of 2 million fans who poured onto Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro for the biggest show of her career. “Tonight, we’re making history... Thank you for making history with me,” Lady Gaga told a screaming crowd. The Mother Monster, as she is known, started the show at about 10:10pm local time with her 2011 song Bloody Mary. Cries of joy rose from the tightly packed fans who sang and danced shoulder-to-shoulder on the vast stretch of sand. Concert organizers said 2.1 million people attended the show. Lady Gaga
CONFLICTING REPORTS: Beijing said it was ‘not familiar with the matter’ when asked if Chinese jets were used in the conflict, after Pakistan’s foreign minister said they were The Pakistan Army yesterday said it shot down 25 Indian drones, a day after the worst violence between the nuclear-armed rivals in two decades. Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif vowed to retaliate after India launched deadly missile strikes on Wednesday morning, escalating days of gunfire along their border. At least 45 deaths were reported from both sides following Wednesday’s violence, including children. Pakistan’s military said in a statement yesterday that it had “so far shot down 25 Israeli-made Harop drones” at multiple location across the country. “Last night, India showed another act of aggression by sending drones to multiple locations,” Pakistan military spokesman Ahmed
RSS