Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi moved from prison to home detention

UNITED NATIONS: Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi has been moved from prison to house arrest in a move to give the junta-ruled nation a veneer of democracy following the election of the military leader Min Aung Hlaing as president.

Myanmar’s Ministry of Information said recently the president “has decided to commute the remaining sentences of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, who is currently serving her sentence at Nay Pyi Taw Prison, to be served under house arrest”.

The Ministry said that the decision to move the 80-year-old Aung San Suu Kyi, who is in frail health, to house detention was taken “from a perspective of the state’s benevolence and goodwill”.

It also said it was in observance of the Full Moon Day of Kasone, “as well as in recognition of her humanitarian compassion”.

That is a sacred day for Myanmar Buddhists, commemorating in one festival the birth, enlightenment, and passing into nirvana of Buddha.

Under the junta rule, Aung San Suu Kyi was charged with offences as petty as owning walkie-talkies to as serious as sedition and corruption and sentenced to a total of 33 years. It had been reduced successively to 22 years and six months, and on Thursday, the junta said it was reducing it by a sixth, while she would continue in house detention. (IANS)

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