Kim Aris, son of Aung San Suu Kyi, attends a press conference at the Japan National Press Club in Tokyo, Japan, 15 December 2025. The second son of jailed Burmese leader Aung San Suu Kyi expressed concern about his mother, who turned 80 earlier this year, as her health is deteriorating. Aung San Suu Kyi is a Nobel Peace Prize laureate and former civilian leader of Myanmar who has been detained since the 2021 military coup. EPA/FRANCK ROBICHON 
In an interview in Tokyo earlier this week, Kim Aris said he had not heard from his mother in years and believes she is being held incommunicado in Myanmar's capital, Naypyidaw.
Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, was detained after a 2021 military coup that ousted her elected civilian government and sparked a civil war. She is serving a 27-year sentence on charges including incitement, corruption and election fraud — all of which she denies.
"Daw Aung San Suu Kyi is in good health," a statement posted on junta-run Myanmar Digital News said on Tuesday, using an honorific for the former leader. The statement offered no evidence or details about her condition.
"The military claims she is in good health, yet they refuse to provide any independent proof, no recent photograph, no medical verification, and no access by family, doctors, or international observers. If she is truly well, they can prove it," Aris told Reuters on Wednesday in response to the statement.
A Myanmar junta spokesman did not respond to calls seeking comment.
FEARING THE WORST
In the interview earlier this week, Aris had said he hopes an upcoming multi-phase election in Myanmar, starting December 28, might offer an opportunity for the military to release Suu Kyi or move her to house arrest.
Myanmar's military has a history of releasing prisoners to mark holidays or important events. Suu Kyi was freed in 2010 days after an election, ending a previous long period of detention.
Aris has joined a chorus of critics, including several foreign governments, dismissing the polls as a sham aimed at legitimising military rule.
The junta accused Aris of trying to disrupt the election — the first general poll since 2020, when the military accused Suu Kyi of committing fraud.
"This is merely a fabrication, timed and distributed to disrupt the free and fair multi-party democratic general election that will be held in Myanmar in the near future," the junta statement said.
Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy, Myanmar's largest political party, remains dissolved and several other anti-junta political groups are boycotting the polls.
"I have no intention of interfering in Burma’s politics. But after years of total isolation, secrecy, and silence, any son would begin to fear the worst," Aris added in response to the junta's statement, using the country's former name..
"My concern is growing because my mother has been hidden for so long that I now have to ask the most painful question: is she still alive?"
(Reporting by Reuters staff and John Geddie in Tokyo; Editing by Devjyot Ghoshal, Ros Russell and Raju Gopalakrishnan)