Nyan Win, a veteran leader of Myanmar’s National League for Democracy (NLD) party, died of COVID-19 in prison Tuesday after spending months in detention following a military coup d'etat.
An executive member of the NLD, Nyan Win served for years as the lawyer of Aung San Suu Kyi, the party’s leader and Myanmar’s ousted State Counsellor. He was arrested 11 days after the junta’s Feb. 1 putsch and is one of the first known political prisoners to die of the disease caused by the coronavirus in Myanmar.
An executive member of the NLD, Nyan Win served for years as the lawyer of Aung San Suu Kyi, the party’s leader and Myanmar’s ousted State Counsellor. He was arrested 11 days after the junta’s Feb. 1 putsch and is one of the first known political prisoners to die of the disease caused by the coronavirus in Myanmar.
He served as the NLD’s spokesperson during three election cycles and was an outspoken critic of the country’s 2008, military-drafted constitution. One of Nyan Win’s family members blamed the regime for his death Tuesday, while a longtime colleague and NLD lawmaker equated holding an elderly politician in an unsanitary prison cell to a death sentence.
At the time of his death, Nyan Win, 79, was suffering from prostate and gastrointestinal disorders. He is survived by a daughter and two grandchildren. Nyan Win's lawyer told RFA that his body is being held in a hospital mortuary and will be buried Wednesday at Htein Pin Cemetery.
Photos: AP, AFP News Agency, and RFA Burmese
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