A Yangon court has ruled in favor of Myanmar’s junta selling jailed former State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi’s historic family home, a source close to the court told Radio Free Asia on Thursday.
The court issued an order to allow junta officials to put the house up for auction on Mar. 20 for a reserve price of roughly US$90 million, the source said, asking to remain anonymous because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
“The price that has been decided would be divided up after auctioning and selling,” he said.
“Now, the order has been implemented. It determined the reserve price of the auction and set the date of the auction and when the sale will be made.”
The source claimed the Kamayut District Court in Yangon region that issued Thursday’s order was junta-affiliated.
Ownership of the historic lakeside home and yard at 54, University Avenue in Yangon’s Bahan township has long been disputed by Aung San Suu Kyi and her brother Aung San Oo.
The house was awarded to Aung San Suu Kyi’s mother, Khin Kyi, after Gen. Aung San was assassinated in 1947.
On Aug. 22, 2022, the junta-controlled Union Supreme Court declared the house would be auctioned under Aung San Oo’s appeal.
Aung San Suu Kyi lived there for almost 15 years under house arrest during the military regime. The shadow National Unity Government has designated the house a national cultural heritage site and announced that legal action will be taken if the junta sells it.
Aung San Suu Kyi was arrested along with former President Win Myint and other leaders of the deposed National League for Democracy party shortly after the military seized power in a Feb. 2021 coup.
The junta sentenced the 78-year-old to 33 years in prison for 19 charges. Last August she was partially pardoned for five of them as part of a general amnesty, reducing her sentence to 27 years.
The Nobel Peace Prize laureate was initially jailed in solitary confinement in Yangon’s Insein Prison. It’s not clear where she is currently being held.
Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Mike Firn.