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

The detained former Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi has been moved to house arrest, the country's state media has reported.

The 80-year-old Nobel laureate has been held in detention - probably in a military prison in the capital Nay Pyi Taw - since she was removed from office in a military coup in 2021.

A statement by military leader Min Aung Hlaing, who led the coup, said he had "commuted her remaining sentence to be served at the designated residence".

Aung San Suu Kyi came to power in 2015 after Myanmar's then rulers introduced democratic reforms. Before that, she spent decades of military rule as a pro-democracy activist, and was previously held for more than 15 years under house arrest.

State media broadcast a picture of her sitting with two uniformed personnel.

Her son Kim Aris said he was sceptical about the announcement and that he did not even have proof that she was alive. He said the picture was "meaningless" as it was taken in 2022.

"I hope this is true. I still haven't seen any real evidence to show that she has been moved," he told the BBC.

"So, until I'm allowed communication with her, or somebody can independently verify her condition and her whereabouts, then I won't believe anything."

Prior to the announcement, nothing was known about her health or living conditions, and Kim Aris said in December he had not heard from her in years.

Her legal team told Reuters they had had no direct notification about her house arrest.

Little has been seen - and nothing heard - from Aung San Suu Kyi since she was arrested on the day the armed forces ousted her elected government more than five years ago.

Her lawyers have not seen her for more than three years; her family has had no contact with her for more than two.

The only image of her seen before Thursday was at a court appearance in May 2021, at the start of a series of trials by the military on charges which have been widely dismissed as fabricated.

Since then, her 33-year sentence has been reduced several times.

Her sudden appearance in state media suggests the military authorities may be preparing for further changes in her status - possibly her partial or complete release.

The coup leader Min Aung Hlaing is eager to end his regime's international isolation, and appears more confident after a string of battlefield wins against armed opposition groups.

The military junta also held an election earlier this year restoring a notionally democratic government, but which leaves the same military leaders in charge.

"The military regime that rules Myanmar is very much on a [public relations] offensive at the moment," Sean Turnell, the former economic adviser to Aung San Suu Kyi, told the BBC's Newsday programme.

He added that Myanmar's military was "trying to convince the world that it's a legitimate government", and the reports of Aung San Suu Kyi's relocation to house arrest were "part and parcel of that".

While Turnell said he was "really hopeful" the reports were true, he has "got a lot of doubts".

Turnell, an Australian economist, was detained alongside Myanmar's democratically elected leaders for more than a year after the 2021 military coup.

During that time, he was kept in the same prison as Aung San Suu Kyi, where conditions were "medieval" and "just really really awful", Turnell recalled, adding that the food and medical care were "bad" and the cells were "open to the elements".

With Aung San Suu Kyi now 80 years old, those are "terrible conditions for her", Turnell said.

During her earlier confinement, Aung San Suu Kyi'sdignified, non-violent resistance won her admirers across Myanmar and around the world, and she famously made speeches to supporters from her family home. She won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991.

But her decision to lead Myanmar's defence against charges of genocide at the International Court of Justice over the military's atrocities against Muslim Rohingyas in 2017 badly tarnished her saint-like international image.

Despite her years of incarceration away from the public eye, Aung San Suu Kyi's standing among the Burmese people remains "extremely high", according to Turnell.

"She has a charisma and connection with the Burmese people that is almost spiritual. And I don't think that's been diminished at all," he said, adding that people in the country are "just hoping that she'll be released".