A source close to Kamayut District Court in Yangon told DVB that the third auction of Aung San Suu Kyi’s home at 54 University Avenue in Bahan Township failed once again to attract any bids on Wednesday.
“There was no bidder, so it did not succeed, again. We don’t know when the next auction will be,” a source close to Kamayut District Court told DVB on the condition of anonymity.
The court set the auction floor price at 297 billion MMK ($65.2 million USD) on Dec. 17 after a request from Aung San Suu Kyi’s brother Aung San Oo.
“The way [Aung San Oo] reduced the auction floor prices [after two] failed auctions, is inconsistent with the law as well as the court procedures,” Khin Maung Myint, a legal expert, told DVB.
The previous auction was held on Aug. 15 at a starting price of 300 billion MMK ($65.9 million USD) by the court. The first auction was held on March 20 at a price of 315 billion MMK ($69.2 million USD). Both of these auctions failed to attract any bids.
The court’s auctions were held without the consent of Aung San Suu Kyi, the home’s legal owner.
Her lawyers have been unable to meet with her since December 2022. They have even appealed to the court to allow them to ask for her approval for the auction. But the court has repeatedly neglected these requests. All communications between Aung San Suu Kyi and the outside world have been cut off.
Aung San Suu Kyi, 79, spent 15 years of house arrest, from 1989 to 2010, at 54 University Avenue in Yangon. She has been held over the last four years in the capital Naypyidaw, despite attempts by the regime to mislead the public of her whereabouts, since her arrest during the military coup on Feb. 1, 2021.
Her son Kim Aris delivered a letter to the Myanmar embassy in London, U.K. on Saturday to request visitation rights, or at least be able to talk to his mother.
He also appealed for his mother’s release from prison, where she’s been serving a 27-year sentence handed down by a regime court, and is leading a campaign to have her freed ahead of her 80th birthday on June 19.
Aris told DVB in an interview last year that Aung San Suu Kyi is suffering from health issues in prison that are being neglected by the authorities, and that he sent her a letter and a care package which was received.
“She basically responded to my letter, sending love to the family and thanking me for what was in the care package,” Aris told DVB in 2024. “She said she’s still got problems with a molar, which is preventing her from being able to eat without considerable pain.”
Last September, Aris met with Pope Francis who has urged the regime in Naypyidaw to free Aung San Suu Kyi and has even offered her refuge at the Vatican.
The U.K. Foreign Secretary David Lammy and three former foreign secretaries, William Hague, Malcolm Rifkind and Jack Straw, have stepped up international efforts to advocate for Aung San Suu Kyi’s release.
Toru Kubota, a Japanese filmmaker who spent three months at Yangon’s Insein Prison but was released in a 2022 amnesty with Aung San Suu Kyi’s former economic advisor Sean Turnell, also joined the campaign calling for her freedom.
“She is the last flame of hope for peace and democracy in Burma. She must be free! The flame must not be allowed to be snuffed out!” said Aris, while reading aloud his letter outside of the Myanmar embassy in London on Feb. 1.