Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s Brother Appeals Inheritance Ruling to Supreme Court

By The Irrawaddy 17 October 2018

YANGON—Myanmar State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s brother has filed a special appeal to the Union Supreme Court asking it to review a Yangon court’s decision in his legal dispute with her over an inheritance.

Yangon’s Western District Court ruled in 2016 that the home on Yangon’s University Avenue in which Daw Aung San Suu Kyi spent her house arrest until 2011 belonged to her, while most of the nearly 2 acres of land it stands on should be divided between her and her brother, U Aung San Oo. It also ruled that a 70 x 100-foot piece of the land belonged to their cousin U Khin Maung Aye, as it had been left to him by their mother.

U Khin Maung Aye died in August.

The ruling stemmed from a lawsuit filed by U Aung San Oo against Daw Aung San Suu Kyi in 2001, in which he demanded half of the lakeside house and the land, claiming they had been left to him and his sister by their mother.

U Aung San Oo objected to the 2016 decision, and on Wednesday he said he had submitted a request for a special appeal to the Supreme Court, asking the court to review the ruling.

He said he wants to put the whole nearly 2-acre plot of land and home up for auction and divide the earnings two ways, between himself and Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.

U Aung San Oo’s lawyer U Aye Lwin said U Khin Maung Aye had never objected to his client’s claim, adding that the decision to award the cousin part ownership of the property was made by the court.

“That’s why we seek a special appeal,” he told the media.

The home is located at No. 54 University Avenue, in one of Yangon’s prime neighborhoods on the shore of Inya Lake. Daw Aung San Suu Kyi spent part of her childhood there before moving to New Delhi with her mother, who was appointed Burma’s Ambassador to India in 1960.

Upon Daw Khin Kyi’s retirement—with Daw Aung San Suu Kyi living in the U.K. and U Aung San Oo in the U.S.—the former ambassador moved back into the villa, where she resided until her death in 1988.

Daw Khin Kyi reportedly left the 70×100-foot plot of land to her nephew U Khin Maung Aye with Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s knowledge. She reportedly made the decision shortly after Daw Aung San Suu Kyi returned to Burma to nurse her ailing mother, while her brother was still in the U.S.

Daw Aung San Suu Kyi lived at the home from 1988, including during her periods of house arrest. When she became a lawmaker in 2012, she moved to Naypyitaw to attend Parliament but returned to the lakeside villa when the chamber was in recess.

Since becoming State Counselor in 2016, she has spent most of her time in the capital, but the mansion is still the place she calls home when making occasional visits to Yangon. She has welcomed numerous international dignitaries to the home, including former U.S. President Barack Obama.