Aung San Suu Kyi: The Myanmar democracy icon detained for years

Key developments are emerging from the global stage. Aung San Suu Kyi: The Myanmar democracy icon detained for years 40 minutes ago Share Save Add as preferred on Google Getty Images Former Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been held in detention since a military coup in 2021, has been moved to house arrest, the country's state media reported. Little has been heard from the 80-year-old Nobel laureate since she was arrested on the day the armed forces ousted her elected government more than five years ago. She was charged with a raft of criminal offences, including corruption.

She denies all of the accusations and rights groups have condemned the series of secret trials as a sham. Having spent nearly15 years in detention between 1989 and 2010, Suu Kyi was once seen as a beacon for human rights, a principled activist who gave up her freedom to challenge the ruthless army generals who have ruled Myanmar for decades. Her personal struggle to bring democracy to Myanmar (also known as Burma) made her an international symbol of peaceful resistance in the face of oppression.

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But her decision later on to defend Myanmar against charges of genocide over the military's atrocities against Muslim Rohingyas badly tarnished her saint-like international image. From behind bars, Aung San Suu Kyi casts a long shadow over Myanmar Political pedigree Suu Kyi is the daughter of Myanmar's independence hero, General Aung San. He was assassinated when she was only two years old, just before Myanmar gained independence from British colonial rule in 1948.

In 1960 she went to India with her mother Daw Khin Kyi, who had been appointed Myanmar's ambassador in Delhi. Four years later she went to Oxford University in the UK, where she studied philosophy, politics and economics. There she met her future husband, academic Michael Aris.

After stints of living and working in Japan and Bhutan, she settled in the UK to raise their two children, Alexander and Kim, but Myanmar was never far from her thoughts. When she arrived back in Yangon in 1988 - to look after her critically ill mother - Myanmar was in the midst of major political upheaval. Thousands of students, office workers and monks took to the streets demanding democratic reform.

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"I could not as my father's daughter remain indifferent to all that was going on," she said in a speech in Yangon on 26 August 1988. She went on to lead the revolt against the then-dictator, General Ne Win. History/Universal Images Group via Getty Images A photo of Aung San (right) with his wife Daw Khin Kyi and their children including Suu Kyi as a baby (front centre) in 1947 House arrest Inspired by the non-violent campaigns of US civil rights leader Martin Luther King and India's Mahatma Gandhi, she organised rallies and travelled around the country, calling for peaceful democratic reform and free elections.

But the demonstrations were brutally suppressed by the army, which seized power in a coup on 18 September 1988. Suu Kyi was placed under house arrest the following year.

The development has drawn wide international attention, with diplomatic circles watching closely.