Aung San Suu Kyi

Aung San Suu Kyi is a Myanmar politician and Nobel Peace Prize laureate. A co-founder and longtime leader of the National League for Democracy (NLD), she spent many years under house arrest during Myanmar’s former military dictatorship. She later served as State Counsellor and foreign minister from 2016 to 2021, becoming the country’s de facto civilian leader. Her international reputation was subsequently damaged by criticism of her government’s response to the military’s persecution of the Rohingya.

In Myanmar’s November 2020 general election, the NLD won an overwhelming parliamentary majority. The military alleged widespread electoral fraud, but Myanmar’s election commission said there was no evidence of fraud substantial enough to affect the result. On 1 February 2021, the military seized power in a coup, prevented the newly elected parliament from convening and detained Suu Kyi along with President Win Myint and other civilian leaders.

Following the coup, military-controlled courts convicted Suu Kyi in a series of closed proceedings on charges including corruption, election fraud and violations of the Official Secrets Act. The United Nations has repeatedly called for her unconditional release and has described those held following the coup as arbitrarily detained.