Attorneys for jailed State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi told the Kamaryut District Court in Yangon on May 15 that it is unprecedented for the losing party in a legal dispute over the auction of an inherited estate to propose a valuation. This comes after four attempts by Suu Kyi’s brother Aung San Oo to lower the floor price of 54 University Avenue, a source close to the court told DVB on the condition of anonymity. 

“The military wants to continue making life as difficult for [my mother] as possible. If they take away that property, she won’t have any property of her own in [Myanmar],” Kim Aris, Aung San Suu Kyi’s son, told DVB. He added that the regime must be pushing his uncle Aung San Oo to auction off the residence without his mother’s consent.

Aung San Oo requested Aung San Suu Kyi’s legal team to set a floor price for the family home at 54 University Avenue in Yangon’s Bahan Township after a fourth failed auction attempt on April 29.

In 2016, the Western Yangon District Court granted Aung San Suu Kyi the two-story lakeside villa at 54 University Avenue, but half of the two-acre property along Inya Lake was to be equally divided between her and Aung San Oo.

The Supreme Court upheld an appeal from Aung San Oo to auction the residence in August 2022. In inheritance cases, only the winning party sets the floor price of the property. It is legally unprecedented for the losing party to set the price, the source told DVB citing Aung San Suu Kyi’s attorneys.

The source added that since Aung San Suu Kyi’s legal team is not permitted to communicate with her by the regime in Naypyidaw, which seized power and ousted her National League for Democracy (NLD) government on Feb. 1, 2021. It immediately placed her in detention, sentencing her to 33 years in prison which was later reduced to 27 years. 

Aung San Suu Kyi, who turns 80-years-old on June 19, has been held incommunicado in Naypyidaw ever since the 2021 military coup. Aris has only received one letter from his mother in the last four-plus years of her imprisonment. He told DVB that he heard rumors she may have been injured during the March 28 earthquake, but has so far not even received any proof of life from her, or the regime.

The court has set four home auction dates over the last year with the floor price reduced on each occasion. The first took place on March 20, 2024 with a floor price of 315 billion MMK ($70.7 million USD). 

The second was held on Aug. 15 with a floor price of 300 billion MMK ($67.4 million USD). The third auction attempt took place on Feb. 5 with a floor price set at 297 billion MMK ($66.7 USD). The fourth attempt with a floor price at 270 billion MMK ($60.6 million USD) took place in April. 

Since there have been no bids made on the residence over the last four attempts, Aung San Oo has requested Aung San Suu Kyi’s legal team propose a price.

Kyee Myint, a veteran lawyer from Myanmar, told DVB that lawyers do not have the right to propose a price for an estate without their client’s approval, which they don’t have because they’ve been unable to meet with her since 2022. 

The residence at 54 University Avenue was owned by Khin Kyi, the wife of Myanmar independence hero Aung San and the mother of Aung San Suu Kyi and Aung San Oo. 

It is also where Aung San Suu Kyi spent 15 years under house arrest imposed by previous military regimes until she was freed in 2010 and allowed to run in a by-election, which she won, then take a seat as a member of parliament for the NLD in 2012. 

Aris launched the “Suu 80th birthday campaign” in January to raise international awareness about his mother’s deteriorating health condition and prolonged detention, along with the 22,121 other political prisoners being held in Myanmar.

The Citizen of Burma Award announced that Aung San Suu Kyi will be its 2025 recipient for her work contributing knowledge, labor, skills and resources towards social services and charities for “the Burmese community inside Burma,” according to the organization’s mission statement.

Kyaw Wanna, the founder of the Citizen of Burma Award, told DVB that Aris will travel to the U.S. to accept the award on behalf of his mother at the ceremony in Houston, Texas on May 24.

He added that the National Unity Government (NUG) Foreign Minister Zin Mar Aung, the Deputy Human Rights Minister Aung Kyaw Moe, and the award’s previous recipient Burma’s Permanent Representative to the U.N. Kyaw Moe Tun, will also be in attendance.

Winners of the Citizen of Burma Award receive $10,000 USD.