Aung San Suu Kyi, the jailed Myanmar democracy leader, has been relocated from prison to house arrest, a military spokesman said Wednesday, as the junta stated that a heatwave had spurred measures to protect inmates.
The 78-year-old Nobel laureate is serving a 27-year sentence for a variety of criminal charges ranging from corruption to violating Covid-19 regulations.
Suu Kyi has mainly been hidden from view since the military imprisoned her during a 2021 coup, and she has reportedly struggled from health issues.
A military official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the media, said Suu Kyi and former President Win Myint had been transferred from prison to house detention.
According to Junta spokesman Zaw Min Tun, officials took precautions to protect vulnerable detainees due to a period of hot weather.
“Not only Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and U Win Myint but also some old prisoners were given necessary care because of very hot weather,” a source told AFP.
The temperature in the capital, Naypyidaw, where Suu Kyi is said to be detained in a specially constructed complex, is projected to reach 41 degrees Celsius (105 degrees Fahrenheit) on Wednesday, with much hotter weather predicted for the next week.
The junta also announced on Wednesday that 3,300 detainees would be released as part of a regular amnesty to commemorate the country’s New Year’s celebration.
Outside Yangon’s Insein Prison, 200 to 300 relatives and friends waited to meet detainees as they were bused out of the camp.
Health problems
It was unclear how long Suu Kyi would be permitted to remain under home arrest after the heatwave, or whether the measure constituted an official reduction in her sentence.
According to local media, Suu Kyi experienced dizzy spells, vomiting, and was occasionally unable to eat due to a tooth infection throughout her monthslong trial.
Her son, Kim Aris, told AFP in February that she was still being kept inside the restricted complex in Naypyidaw.
The compound had no air conditioning in the sweltering heat, and the concrete cells flooded during the monsoon, according to Australian economist Sean Turnell, a former advisor to Suu Kyi’s government who was jailed there for months.
Suu Kyi spent roughly 15 years under house imprisonment at her family’s colonial-era lakeside estate in Yangon, the economic hub, after rising to prominence during the anti-junta demonstrations in 1988.
The junta announced Wednesday’s prisoner amnesty, which includes 13 Indonesians and 15 Sri Lankans who would be deported.
The remaining convicts’ sentences will be reduced by one-sixth, the junta stated in a statement, with the exception of those convicted of major offenses such as murder, terrorism, and narcotics crimes.
Myanmar’s military deposed Suu Kyi’s civilian administration in a flash coup in February 2021, capping the country’s 10-year experience with democracy after decades of military control.
The coup sparked a massive outpouring of public dissent, which the military tried to crush with force, resulting in a spiraling conflict that has killed over 4,800 civilians.
The army is now struggling to maintain control of the country in the face of opposition from civilian anti-junta fighters and long-standing ethnic minority armed organizations.