Myanmar’s detained former leader Aung San Suu Kyi will be transferred to house arrest, according to state media reports on Thursday, marking a significant shift more than five years after the military removed her from power and imprisoned the Nobel Peace Prize laureate.
Suu Kyi, now 80, has been held by the junta since the February 2021 coup that plunged the country into a violent civil conflict.
Her exact location has remained unknown throughout the crisis, which has gripped much of the Southeast Asian nation.
State broadcaster MRTV said that “the remaining portion of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s sentence has been commuted to be served at a designated residence,” using a traditional honorific.
It also released a rare image showing her seated on a wooden bench, flanked by two uniformed officers, the first time she has been seen publicly in years.
At the United Nations headquarters in New York, spokesperson Stephane Dujarric welcomed the development.
“We’ve just seen the reports,” he said. “I can tell you that we appreciate the commutation of Aung San Suu Kyi to a so-called house arrest in a designated residence. It is a meaningful step towards conditions conducive to credible political process.”
Dujarric added that the only viable political solution in Myanmar “must be based on immediate cessation of violence and a genuine commitment to inclusive dialogue.”
Despite the announcement, uncertainty over her wellbeing remains. Her son, Kim Aris, said the move had done little to clarify her condition or even confirm that she is alive.
“I still do not know where my mother is. I do not know how she is. I remain deeply concerned about whether she is still alive,” he said. “If she is alive, I ask for proof of life.”
Aris previously told Reuters in December that he had not had direct contact with his mother for years, relying only on occasional secondhand updates about health concerns, including heart, bone and gum issues.
A member of her legal team also said they had received no formal notification about the transfer. “It is good to hear that the house arrest has been confirmed but we haven’t received any direct notification,” the lawyer said. “We only found out about it from the news announcement.”
Following a lengthy series of trials, Suu Kyi was originally handed a 33-year prison sentence on charges including corruption, election fraud and breaching state secrecy laws, allegations her supporters insist were politically driven to remove her from public life.
Her sentence was later reduced to 27 years and has since been further shortened through a series of amnesties. A recent Myanmar New Year pardon on April 17 also saw the release of her ally and former president Win Myint.
Earlier on Thursday, authorities cut her sentence again by one-sixth as part of a broader prisoner amnesty.
The daughter of independence hero Aung San, Suu Kyi previously spent 15 years under house arrest during an earlier period of military rule, largely confined to her family home by Yangon’s Inya Lake, where she became a symbol of resistance.
Myanmar’s military leader Min Aung Hlaing, who led the 2021 coup, has faced sustained international pressure to free political prisoners, particularly as he seeks to rebuild ties with the regional bloc ASEAN after being excluded from its high-level meetings.
Just last week, Min Aung Hlaing told Thailand’s foreign minister that Suu Kyi was being “well looked after” and that his administration was considering unspecified “good things.”
