The son of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi has made a fresh appeal for her freedom in a new letter addressed to the president of Myanmar.
Kim Aris (Htein Lin), the son of the democracy icon, hand-delivered the document addressed to Min Aung Hlaing to the Myanmar embassy in London on Tuesday.
“Still the military Junta hold my mother Aung San Suu Kyi,” Mr Aris told The Independent. “It is now decades long her initial illegal imprisonment.
“She symbolises freedom and democracy in a country taken over by and run by the rule of military law. The world cannot allow democracy to be snuffed out and for my mother not to be freed.
“At her age it is the equivalent of execution to keep her hidden and locked up.”
The 81-year-old Ms Suu Kyi has had no contact outside of the country since a letter to her son two and a half years ago.
In April, Mr Aris launched a campaign calling for proof of life, resulting in his mother being allowed to meet a delegation from the International Committee of the Red Cross in August.
Now he says that proof of life was “only the beginning” and that she should be granted her full freedom.
“My mother has lost enough years of her life,” he said. “I want to see her, speak with her and spend time with her while we still can,” he continued. “It is time to FREE HER.”
The campaign is calling for “direct and regular family contact, respect for her basic rights and humane treatment, and her immediate and unconditional release.”
Ms Suu Kyi has been in detention since February 2021, when Myanmar’s military ousted a democratically elected civilian government led by her in a coup that plunged the Southeast Asian country into turmoil.
Since her detention, her exact whereabouts and health conditions have been difficult to determine, with limited contact with the outside world. She has not seen any foreign leader or envoy since she was detained.
“I feel relief to see proof that she is alive: I feel anger that she is being unjustly held and has been in solitary confinement for more than five years, damaging her mental and physical health,” Mr Aris told The Independent at the time of his mother’s meeting with the Red Cross.
Ms Suu Kyi appeared healthy in photographs released by the Burmese government, but Mr Aris said that pressure “must not be lessened” to secure her complete release.
The ICRC said in a statement that the visit was carried out in accordance with its standards and procedures for visiting people deprived of liberty.
The Independent released an award-winning documentary on the plight of the controversial former leader of Myanmar in December 2024, Cancelled: The Rise and Fall of Aung San Suu Kyi.
Ms Suu Kyi won the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1991 for being Burma’s “symbol of freedom”. Her son, Mr Aris, accepted the award on her behalf as she was under house arrest at the time.
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