Myanmar’s State Counselor and a founding member of the National League for Democracy, Myanmar’s majority political party, Aung San Suu Kyi has held a top civilian leadership position since April 2016. On February 1, 2021, Aung San Suu Kyi was detained amid a military-led coup while acting within her capacity as State Counselor. She has been charged with breaching import and export laws, possession of unlawful communication devices, referring to six walkie-talkies, and breaching a natural disaster law by holding a rally during the coronavirus pandemic. Following her initial detention, she was additionally charged under a section of a colonial-era penal law which prohibits the publication of information that may “cause for alarm” or violate “public tranquility,” and a final charge of “corruption using her rank.”
Case History
Aung San Suu Kyi is a writer and pro-democracy activist and daughter of Burma’s independence hero Aung San. After studying at Lady Shri Ram College in New Delhi and St. Hugh’s College in Oxford, she completed her doctoral degree in Oriental and African Studies at the University of London. Suu Kyi returned to Myanmar in 1988 and soon became the face of the pro-democracy movement, helping to found the National League for Democracy (NLD) leading the group as general secretary. Suu Kyi is also the author of many books, including Freedom from Fear (1991), Letters from Burma (1997), and The Voice of Hope (1997).
In April of 2016, Aung San Suu Kyi assumed the position of State Counselor through the passage of a measure approved by the Parliament’s lower house. A founding member of the National League for Democracy party, her position gave her authority to coordinate affairs between the parliamentary and executive branches of government during a five-year term concurrent with the Presidency, while she also acted as minister of the president’s office and of foreign affairs.
In November 2020, the NLD won the majority vote in the general election, and, on January 24, 2021, the Vice President of the NLD announced that Aung San Suu Kyi would assume a second term as State Counselor. On February 1, 2021, Aung San Suu Kyi, while acting in her capacity as State Counselor, was detained amid a military-led coup. Initial charges against Suu Kyi included illegally importing walkie-talkies and violating Myanmar’s natural disaster law, which carry sentences of up to three years in jail. Additional charges of using illegal communication equipment and causing “fear and alarm” were added on March 1, 2021, and a final charge of “corruption using her rank” was added on June 10, 2021. Suu Kyi went on trial in a closed court on June 14, 2021, in proceedings that Human Rights Watch calls “bogus and politically motivated.”