Mandalay’s ousted chief minister transferred to hospital

Mandalay Region’s ousted chief minister, Dr. Zaw Myint Maung, has been moved from Mandalay’s Obo Prison to a private hospital to receive treatment for his leukaemia, according to sources. The 72-year-old politician, who is also a senior member of the National League for Democracy (NLD), has been in junta custody since the military seized power from the party in February 2021. “We heard from mothers visiting other political prisoners in the prison that he was transferred to a hospital on June 25. We are assuming that he has developed a sudden complication,” said a former political prisoner familiar with his situation. First diagnosed with leukaemia in late 2019, Dr. Zaw Myint Maung has only recently begun to receive treatment for the disease inside the prison, sources there said. An NLD member close to Dr. Zaw Myint Maung’s family confirmed that his health appeared to be getting worse. “The last we heard was that doctors were planning to put him on a new drug regime because the results of his blood tests were not good. But we haven’t had any news since they stopped taking him out for tests,” she said. She also told Myanmar Now that the family had been denied permission to visit him in prison and has not been informed of his transfer to a hospital. For the first two years of his incarceration at Obo Prison, where he has been serving a 29-year sentence on multiple charges, Dr. Zaw Myint Maung was held in a cell that exposed him to scorching heat throughout the day, according to the former political prisoner. “After two years, he was transferred to a building called Ward 1, where he was given a private cell. He could walk around, but was not allowed to leave the cell. That’s when they began allowing him to receive medical care,” he added. A few months after his transfer to the new ward, he was taken out of the prison to undergo a series of tests. He then began to receive chemotherapy in the prison’s hospital, where he has reportedly been held since late last year. According to the former political prisoner, one of the doctors caring for Dr. Zaw Myint Maung inside the prison was Dr. Soe Thiha, an oncologist and fellow prisoner.

Mandalay’s ousted chief minister transferred to hospital

The regime has largely denied Dr. Zaw Myint Maung treatment for his leukaemia since detaining him more than three years ago

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