Yangon – Detained Myanmar democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi is in “good health”, a junta spokesman told AFP on Thursday, a day after the Nobel laureate turned 79 in military custody.
Aung San Suu Kyi has been detained by the military since it toppled her government and seized power in 2021, plunging the Southeast Asian nation into turmoil.
The Nobel laureate is serving a 27-year sentence imposed by a junta court after a trial condemned by rights groups as a sham to shut her out of politics.
“She’s in good health as far as I know and living at a place we arranged for her previously,” junta spokesman Zaw Min Tun told AFP, without giving details.
Aung San Suu Kyi has been held in a specially constructed prison compound in the military-built capital Naypyidaw.
The junta spokesman did not specify where she was currently being held.
In April, the junta said she had been given “necessary care” as temperatures in Naypyitaw reached 40 degrees Celsius.
Aung San Suu Kyi, who remains hugely popular in Myanmar, has been largely hidden from view since the coup, appearing only in grainy state media photos taken during court proceedings.
Local media reported that during her months-long trial, Aung San Suu Kyi suffered dizzy spells, vomiting and at times had been unable to eat because of a tooth infection.
Her son Kim Aris told AFP on Wednesday that he was “concerned” about his mother’s condition, given her age and ongoing health issues.
The military seized power making unsubstantiated claims of fraud during the 2020 election won resoundingly by Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy.
The junta’s subsequent crackdown on dissent has sparked a widespread armed uprising that the military is struggling to crush.
by Agence France Presse
