Former Home Affairs Minister Lieutenant-General Soe Htut, who is currently serving a five-year sentence for corruption, has been moved from prison to house arrest for health reasons, according to sources familiar with the matter.
Soe Htut was handed a five-year term by a military tribunal in November last year for taking bribes from passport applicants and misappropriating the welfare funds of the Home Affairs Ministry during his tenure as the minister, according to junta media.
He was transferred from Naypyitaw Prison to Taungoo Prison around the end of December, and the regime recently put him under house arrest after he was diagnosed with colon cancer.
“He was only recently diagnosed with colon cancer. I heard he is very ill, as his symptoms worsened while he was in prison,” a source familiar with the matter told The Irrawaddy.
Soe Htut, who was once widely considered junta boss Min Aung Hlaing’s alter ego, played a key role in the February 2021 military coup and oversaw the executions by hanging of four pro-democracy activists including Ko Jimmy and Ko Zeya Thaw in Insein Prison.
Soe Htut was appointed home affairs minister in 2020, and became the regime’s deputy prime minister in February last year. Amid rumors that he was in poor health, he was transferred to the regime’s Union Government Office No. 1 in August.
He was recalled to military service on Sept. 25, only to be jailed for corruption soon after.
Earlier in his career Soe Htut served as the head of the Myanmar military’s Southern Command and chief of Military Security Affairs. Together with Police Brigadier-General Kyaw Soe Win, he led the Myanmar military team that arrested President U Win Myint on Feb. 1, 2021, the day the coup was launched.
