Myanmar’s ousted civilian leader, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, has been transferred from house arrest to prison and is being held in solitary confinement, according to a spokesman for the army that took power last year.
Aung San Suu Kyi, who was convicted on half a dozen counts and sentenced to 11 years in prison, faces 13 other charges with a maximum sentence of more than 180 years.
The Nobel Peace Prize winner, who turned 77 on Sunday, has long demonstrated the country’s struggle for democracy and faces the prospect of spending the rest of his life in prison if the military regime still in power.
Human rights advocates and spokesman for the Secretary-General of the United Nations, António Guterres, criticized her move to prison on Wednesday and her stay in solitary confinement.
“I can tell you, we are very concerned about these latest developments, which go against everything we are calling for,” said Guterres spokesman Stéphane Dujarric. on Thursday.
Myanmar’s generals, who have ruled the country for nearly 50 years, began loosening their grip more than a decade ago and in 2016 began sharing power with Aung San Suu Kyi after the party. her, the National League for Democracy, won the national election.
She led her party to victory in elections three times in three decades, but was only allowed to run the country once. On the morning of February 1, 2021, just as she and her followers were sworn in for another term, the military regained power and arrested many party leaders.
The coup sparked nationwide protests and a brutal crackdown by the military, known as the Tatmadaw. According to the Association to Support Political Prisoners, soldiers and police have killed more than 2,000 civilians – shooting many of them in the streets – and held more than 11,200 political prisoners.
Many pro-democracy activists have fled into the jungle and joined the burgeoning People’s Self-Defense Forces that are battling the regime’s troops in many parts of the country.
In recent weeks, authorities have threatened to execute democracy activists detained for opposing the regime, including U Kyaw Min Yu, better known as Ko Jimmy, and opposition lawmaker U. Phyo Zayar Thaw, a former hip-hop artist. Both were sentenced to death in January under Myanmar’s anti-terrorism law in closed-door trials.
Aung San Suu Kyi, the daughter of Myanmar’s independence hero, General Aung San, was placed under house arrest for more than 15 years before being released in 2010. During that time, she was briefly locked up in The infamous Insein Prison.
Since the coup, she has been under house arrest at undisclosed locations near the capital Naypyidaw, until Wednesday, when she was transferred to a prison in the city. The move comes after workers finished building a new courtroom inside the prison.
“She was transferred from house arrest to prison on June 22, according to the law,” Major General Zaw Min Tun, an army spokesman, said in a statement on Thursday. “She is being treated well and is being held in solitary confinement in prison.”
A person close to Aung San Suu Kyi, who requested anonymity for fear of retribution, said she was in good health but was forced to leave behind her beloved dog Taichito, a gift from her young son.
Prison officials said Aung San Suu Kyi is expected to wear a prison uniform and abide by prison regulations.
U Kyee Myint, a former prison guard and lawyer in Yangon who has defended many political prisoners, said the coup’s leader, Major General Min Aung Hlaing, was motivated by longstanding “hate” his life for Aung San Suu Kyi.
He said: “It is evil that Min Aung Hlaing illegally seized power and made absurd charges against Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and sent her to prison. “Even under previous regimes, she was under house arrest.”
Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director of Human Rights Watch, called on the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, of which Myanmar is a member, to speak out against her imprisonment and pressure the regime to pay her back. freedom for her.
“The charges against her were politically motivated and bogus, and she was completely jailed by the kangaroo court in front of the military,” he said. “This is not justice; This is political retribution. ”
