(CNN) Myanmar's deposed leader Aung San Suu Kyi has been detained for two weeks, according to her party's spokesperson, two days after the country's powerful armed forces seized control in a coup.
Suu Kyi, who was the country's de facto leader under the title state counsellor, was issued with an arrest warrant for breaching the country's import and export laws.
National League for Democracy (NLD) spokesperson Kyi Toe, posted on his Facebook account Wednesday that Suu Kyi would be detained until February 15.
"According to reliable information, a 14-day arrest warrant was issued against Daw Aung San Su Kyi under the Import and Export Law," he said.
Deposed President Win Myint was also detained under the country's Disaster Management Law, Kyi Toe said. Neither he nor Suu Kyi has been charged.
Suu Kyi and former President Win Myint were arrested in pre-dawn raids Monday hours before the military declared that power had been handed to commander in chief Min Aung Hlaing over unfounded allegations of election fraud. A state of emergency was declared for one year.
Numerous senior lawmakers and officials in the ruling National League for Democracy Party (NLD) were also detained, with some 400 kept at a guest house in the capital.
Cementing its rule, the new ruling junta removed 24 ministers and deputies from government and named 11 of its own allies as replacements who will assume their roles in a new administration.
The sudden seizure of power came as the new parliament was due to open and after months of increasing friction between the civilian government and the powerful military, known as the Tatmadaw, over alleged election irregularities.
Suu Kyi's party, the NLD claimed an overwhelming victory in the November 2020 elections, only the second since the end of military rule, taking 83% of the vote, which granted it another five years in government.
The country's election commission has repeatedly denied mass voter fraud took place.
Aung San Suu Kyi
Aung San Suu Kyi poses for a portrait in Yangon, Myanmar, in 2010. A month earlier, she had been released from house arrest.
Suu Kyi, front center, is seen with her parents and her two elder brothers in 1947. Her father, Aung San, was the commander of the Burma Independence Army and helped negotiate the country's independence from Britain. He was assassinated on July 19, 1947. Suu Kyi's mother, Ma Khin Kyi, was a diplomat who was once an ambassador to India.
Suu Kyi poses with Burmese comedian Par Par Lay, who was part of the pro-democracy act "The Moustache Brothers." Suu Kyi grew up in Myanmar and India but moved to England in the 1960s, where she studied at Oxford University. She returned to Myanmar in 1988 and co-founded the National League for Democracy, a political party dedicated to nonviolence and civil disobedience.
Suu Kyi sprinkles water over the heads of her followers during a traditional new year ceremony in Yangon in 1989. Five days of celebrations were marked by anti-government protests closely watched by armed troops.
Suu Kyi poses for a photo in June 1989.
Suu Kyi addresses a crowd of supporters in Yangon in July 1989. About two weeks later, she was placed under house arrest and charged with trying to divide the military. She denied the charges.
While under house arrest, Suu Kyi won the Nobel Peace Price in 1991. She was honored "for her non-violent struggle for democracy and human rights."
Suu Kyi speaks to hundreds of supporters from the gate at her residential compound in Yangon in 1995. She had just been released from house arrest, but her political activity was restricted.
Suu Kyi addresses supporters in 1997, on the 49th anniversary of Myanmar's independence movement.
Suu Kyi, in a 1999 home video, gives her support to economic sanctions against her country as a means to affect the governing military.
Suu Kyi poses in front of a portrait of her father in 1999. In 2000, she was once again placed under house arrest.
An activist holds a Suu Kyi portrait during a protest at the Chinese Embassy in Bangkok, Thailand, in 2009. The protesters were calling on the Chinese government to impose sanctions on Myanmar's military government following a Suu Kyi trial.
Suu Kyi speaks in Yangon in December 2010, a month after being released from house arrest. She had spent 15 of the previous 21 years under house arrest.
Suu Kyi is held by her son Kim Aris as she is greeted by supporters during a visit to the ancient temple city of Bagan in 2011.
Suu Kyi meets US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at Suu Kyi's residence in Yangon in 2011.
Suu Kyi greets crowds while campaigning in Pathein, Myanmar, in 2012. She was running for a seat in parliament.
Suu Kyi makes her way through a crowd in 2012, a day after she won a seat in parliament. It was Myanmar's first multiparty elections since 1990.
Suu Kyi accepts the Ambassador of Conscience Award next to U2 singer Bono during a European tour in 2012.
Suu Kyi is presented with the Congressional Gold Medal while visiting the US Capitol in 2012.
Suu Kyi meets with US President Barack Obama in the White House Oval Office. Obama later visited her lakeside villa in Myanmar. It was the first visit to Myanmar by a sitting US president.
Suu Kyi joins officer cadets for tea while visiting a military academy in Camberley, England, in 2013.
Suu Kyi speaks during a Nobel lecture in Oslo, Norway, in 2015. She was finally able to receive the Nobel Peace Prize that she won while she was under house arrest in 1991.
Suu Kyi descends from a stage decorated with a portrait of her late father during a campaign rally in 2015.
Suu Kyi campaigns in Kawhmu, Myanmar, in 2015.
Suu Kyi arrives at a polling station to cast her vote in 2015. Her party won a historic majority in the nation's first freely held parliamentary elections. Suu Kyi was not able to become president, however, because of a constitutional amendment that prohibits anyone with foreign relatives from becoming the nation's leader. She was later named state counselor, a role created especially for her.
Suu Kyi and members of parliament take their positions during the presidential vote in Naypyidaw, Myanmar, in 2016. Htin Kyaw, Suu Kyi's longtime aide, was voted as president.
Suu Kyi walks with Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, the country's military leader, at the Naypyidaw city airport in 2016.
Suu Kyi and President Kyaw talk at a conference in Naypyidaw in 2016.
Suu Kyi addresses the United Nations General Assembly in New York in 2016.
Supporters rush to greet Suu Kyi in Washington, DC, after she met with US Secretary of State John Kerry in 2016.
Suu Kyi is guided by National Park Service Ranger Heath Mitchell on her visit to Washington, DC, in 2016.
Suu Kyi met with Pope Francis at the Vatican in 2017.
Britain's Queen Elizabeth II greets Suu Kyi ahead of a private lunch at Buckingham Palace in 2017.
US Vice President Mike Pence meets with Suu Kyi on the sidelines of the ASEAN summit in Singapore in 2018.
Suu Kyi stands before the UN's International Court of Justice in 2019. The nation of Gambia filed a lawsuit in the world court
alleging that Myanmar committed "genocidal acts" against Myanmar's Rohingya Muslims. Suu Kyi has repeatedly denied such charges, siding with the military and labeling the accusations as "misinformation."
Suu Kyi casts her ballot during advance voting in 2020.
Suu Kyi watches the vaccination of health workers at a hospital in Naypyidaw in January 2021. A few days later, the military detained her in a coup.
Analysts have suggested the coup was more likely to do with the military attempting to reassert its power and the personal ambition of army chief Min Aung Hlaing, who was set to step down this year, rather than serious claims of voter fraud.
"Facing mandatory retirement in a few months, with no route to a civilian leadership role, and amid global calls for him to face criminal charges in The Hague, he was cornered," Jared Genser, an international human rights lawyer who previously served as pro bono counsel to Suu Kyi, said in a CNN op-ed.
On Tuesday, United States President Joe Biden formally determined that the military takeover in Myanmar constituted a coup, a designation that requires the US to cut its foreign assistance to the country. A State Department official, speaking on a call with reporters, also said that sanctions in response to the power grab remain on the table.
Following the coup, doctors from hospitals across the country prepared to strike in protest, despite the coronavirus pandemic.
Assistant Doctors at Yangon General Hospital released a statement pledging their participation in the "civil disobedience movement," saying they will not work under a military led government and called for Suu Kyi's release.
Video showed medical workers in Yangon outside the hospital Wednesday dressed in their scrubs and protective gear, while wearing red ribbons.
A medical staff holds a paper with the sign of red ribbon as a symbol of resistance against the military coup at Central Women's Hospital in Yangon, Myanmar, February 3, 2021.
Myanmar's Ministry of Information warned the media and public Tuesday not to spread rumors on social media or incite unrest, urging people to cooperate with the government following Monday's coup.
"Some media and public are spreading rumors on social media conducting gatherings to incite rowdiness and issuing statements which can cause unrest," the statement read. "We would like to urge the public not to carry out these acts and would like to notify the public to cooperate with the government in accordance with the existing laws."
Anxiety is growing in Myanmar as to what will come next and many in the country have urged the international community to step up government pressure.
For more than 50 years, Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, was run by successive isolationist military regimes that plunged the country into poverty and brutally stifled any dissent. Thousands of critics, activists, journalists, academics and artists were routinely jailed and tortured during that time.
Suu Kyi shot to prominence during her decades-long struggle against military rule. When her party, the NLD, won a landslide in elections in 2015 and formed the first civilian government, many pro-democracy supporters hoped it would mark a break from the military rule of the past and offer hope that Myanmar would continue to reform.
"We know that the military cannot be trusted to respect the human rights of people and the rule of law in Burma," said Bo Kyi, co-founder of the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners. "When the military was last in charge, political prisoners like me were rounded up, sent to prison for decades, (put in) solitary confinement and tortured. We are concerned that if this state of emergency is not reversed, similar things will happen again," added Kyi, who is also a former political prisoner.
"There is a fear that the military could continue persecuting officials, activists and crack down on ordinary people. But we have hope that Burma can return on its democratic path."