When Shwe Theingi first met Wutt Yee Aung at Myanmar’s Dagon University in 2019, the country was experiencing a rare opening after decades of military rule. The two students bonded over activism in the student union, enjoying freedoms that a new generation in Yangon had only recently gained. Within two years, those hopes were crushed by the February 1, 2021 military coup, and both their lives were irrevocably altered.
Wutt Yee Aung, a zoology major known for her outspoken personality and distinctive short hair, chose to stay in Yangon and join protests against the junta. She was arrested in September 2021 and later sentenced to seven years in Insein prison on charges including insurgency and incitement. Through letters and brief phone calls, she stayed in touch with friends and family, pleading for money for food and medicine and listing treatments for nerve damage and asthma.
According to friends and student union members, Wutt Yee Aung suffered head injuries during interrogation shortly after her arrest, despite having no prior health problems. Her condition worsened over time, and she was hospitalised inside prison at least once in mid-2025. In one undated letter reviewed by Reuters, she asked for funds for medical tests, urging that her mother not be told and writing simply that she missed everyone.
She died in prison on July 19, 2025, at the age of 25. Authorities told her family she had died of a heart condition, an explanation disputed by the Dagon University Students’ Union, which said she was denied adequate medical care and access to medicine. Reuters could not independently verify every detail of her treatment but found that her case echoes broader allegations of abuse in Myanmar’s prisons.
Another young activist, Khant Linn Naing, was arrested at 19 after the coup and sentenced to 15 years for incitement and insurrection. His family learned of his detention through television news. Held at Daik-U prison, about 110 kilometres from Yangon, he disappeared from public view until authorities sent a letter in July 2023 saying he had been shot dead while trying to escape during a prison transfer.
The letter, described to Reuters by a family member, offered no details. His parents were never given access to his body, and more than two years later they have still not held a funeral, clinging to hope that he may still be alive. Prison monitoring groups say escape attempts during transfers are highly unlikely, as inmates are usually restrained and escorted, and sources told them Khant Linn Naing had undergone harsh interrogation shortly before his reported death.
Reuters reviewed prison correspondence and spoke with relatives, associates and two monitoring organisations to reconstruct the circumstances surrounding the deaths of detained students. While not all accounts could be independently confirmed, they align with findings by United Nations investigators, who last year accused Myanmar’s security forces of systematic torture, killings and other serious abuses in detention. The junta’s information ministry did not respond to Reuters’ requests for comment, and the foreign ministry has previously dismissed such allegations as unfounded.
Data from the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, corroborated by the Political Prisoners Network of Myanmar, shows at least 74 political prisoners aged between 18 and 35 have died in detention since the coup. Overall, 273 people charged with incitement and insurrection have died while incarcerated. The United Nations says arrests, torture, conscription and displacement have disproportionately affected young people, with an estimated 300,000 to 500,000 fleeing the country.
Five years after mass protests filled the streets, Myanmar’s generals remain in power. Despite losing territory in border regions, the junta has expanded aerial strikes, imposed conscription and recently concluded a tightly controlled election expected to entrench military-backed rule. For friends like Shwe Theingi, the future once imagined now feels impossibly distant.
“I wanted to become a news presenter. Wutt Yee wanted to do more volunteer work,” she said. “Each of us had different dreams.”
