Aung San Suu Kyi, the former leader of Myanmar, remains in the custody of the military more than five-and-a-half years after being removed from power. On the morning of February 1, 2021, she was ousted by a military coup just hours before she was scheduled to be sworn in for a second term as the country’s de facto leader. She has been held by the military ever since.
The military attempted to justify her detention through a series of legal maneuvers. Between December 2021 and December 2022, Aung San Suu Kyi was sentenced to a total of 33 years in prison on charges of corruption, incitement, election fraud, and violation of Myanmar’s Official Secrets Act. For more than five years, she has been largely unseen by the outside world, with little information regarding her condition. This lack of transparency led some, including one of her sons, to question whether she was still alive.
In an effort to address these concerns, the military has occasionally permitted a phone call or released low-resolution photographs of the detained leader, most recently in April, August, and October 2026. These releases are part of a broader strategy to push for diplomatic normalization following a transition to a nominally civilian government. However, this new administration is led by the same individual who directed the 2021 coup: former military chief Min Aung Hlaing.
In December 2025 and January 2026, the military staged a heavily managed election that was widely boycotted by pro-democracy forces. The party associated with the military won in a landslide, and in April, a military-dominated parliament appointed Min Aung Hlaing as president. The ex-general now uses this democratic process as a fig leaf to justify his rule. One of his first actions as president was to move Aung San Suu Kyi from prison to house arrest and reduce her sentence. Despite these changes, Min Aung Hlaing has no intention of releasing her, as her status as a hostage remains central to the political and personal legitimacy of his government.
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