Myanmar ex-leader Aung San Suu Kyi moved to house arrest, state media says

REUTERS - Myanmar's detained former leader Aung San Suu Kyi is to be moved to house arrest, state media reported on Thursday (April 30), more than five years after the military ousted the civilian government she led and jailed the Nobel laureate.

Suu Kyi, 80, has been detained by the junta since and her whereabouts have been unclear amid a deadly civil war that was triggered by the February 2021 coup that has engulfed much of the impoverished Southeast Asian nation.

“The remaining portion of Madam Aung San Suu Kyi's sentence, who is serving in Naypyitaw prison, has been commuted to be served at a designated residence.” state-run MRTV reported.

State media also broadcast a photograph of Suu Kyi, seated on a wooden bench and flanked by two uniformed personnel - the first public image of her in years.

In a statement, her son Kim Aris said Thursday's announcement by Myanmar authorities did little to dispel fears about her condition or even confirm that she was still alive.

After a marathon run of trials, Suu Kyi was sentenced to 33 years after convictions on charges ranging from corruption and inciting election fraud to violating state secrecy rules, which her allies maintain were politically motivated and aimed at sidelining her.

That sentence was later commuted to 27 years, and then by a sixth in a Myanmar New Year amnesty on April 17 that freed her ally and co-defendant Win Myint, the former president.

Earlier on Thursday, her sentence was reduced by a further one-sixth as part of a wider amnesty of all prisoners in Myanmar's jails.