Imprisoned NLD party patron hospitalised for heat-related health issues

Political prisoner and National League for Democracy (NLD) party patron Win Htein was admitted to hospital in Mandalay on Wednesday for health issues related to intense heat while in incarceration, his daughter said. Temperatures in the central Myanmar city have soared to 46 degrees Celsius in recent days. Chit Su Win Htein, 37, said that her 83-year-old father, who is being held in Mandalay’s notorious Obo Prison, “was sick with heat exhaustion and a slight fever.” Former army captain Win Htein was arrested three days after the February 2021 military coup that ousted the elected civilian NLD government headed by Aung San Suu Kyi. He had spoken to reporters and publicly criticised the military and its commander, Min Aung Hlaing, for staging the takeover. In October of that year, he was handed a 20-year prison sentence in a closed junta-controlled court for sedition. He suffers from multiple health conditions including heart disease, diabetes, hypertension, thyroid issues, and requires a regular supply of oxygen and the use of a wheelchair. Chit Su Win Htein said that in photos she saw of her father on the news this week, he looked much older than she remembered. “It made me really sad,” she said. “The last time I saw him was on February 3, 2021. When I saw his photo last night, as a family member I felt horrible.” Win Htein’s relatives are allowed to send him food parcels, letters, and medicine every two weeks, but have been denied visits. “Every time there is amnesty or even a rumour of one, I hope for his release. We want his release since his imprisonment was unjust,” Chit Su Win Htein said. She added that her father remained “very strong and positive” and attributed this to his surviving an earlier lengthy incarceration, when he was arrested for his political activities in support of Aung San Suu Kyi and the NLD in 1989, and spent most of the next 20 years in prison before being released in 2010. A Yangon-based lawyer who has been involved in cases involving politically motivated charges, said his clients are also suffering health issues due to the intense heat, which is expected to last until early May and has caused several deaths across the region. “It is scorching hot. I am worried for people inside the prisons,” he told Myanmar Now. “Some of my clients are suffering from malaria or heat rash. In the male prison, it is overcrowded and the inmates live very close to each other.”

Imprisoned NLD party patron hospitalised for heat-related health issues

As temperatures soar to 46 degrees in Mandalay, elderly political prisoner Win Htein is treated for ‘heat exhaustion’

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