Thousands of prisoners in Myanmar have been granted amnesty or had their sentences reduced. The pardon order by Min Aung Hlaing is one of his first official acts since the coup leader became president this month.

The move comes as the lawyer for jailed former leader Aung San Suu Kyi told the Reuters news agency that her sentence has been reduced. Former president Win Myint, detained since the 2021 coup, was also pardoned of his convictions, a statement from the presidency said.

Min ‌Aung Hlaing approved an amnesty for 4,335 prisoners, Myanmar’s state television MRTV reported.

A communique on behalf of Min Aung Hlaing said “those serving death sentences shall have their sentences commuted to life imprisonment”, without naming specific prisoners.

“The President has pardoned Win Myint,” said another statement from Min Aung Hlaing’s office. Win Myint was “granted a pardon and the reduction of his remaining sentences under ⁠specified conditions”, ⁠MRTV said.

Suu Kyi, 80, is serving a 27-year sentence on charges her allies describe as politically motivated. Her sentence was cut by one-sixth, her lawyer told Reuters, but ‌it remains unclear whether the Nobel Peace Prize winner will be allowed to serve the rest of her sentence under house arrest. Min Aung Hlaing placed Suu Kyi under arrest after the coup.

Amnesties ⁠typically happen as Myanmar marks Independence Day in January and its New Year in April.

Among those to be released are 179 foreign nationals, who will be deported. The amnesty also includes the commutation of all death sentences to life imprisonment, life sentences reduced to 40 years, and a one-sixth reduction in term lengths for all other prisoners.

30,000 political prisoners

The latest amnesty comes just a week after Min Aung Hlaing was sworn in as president in the capital Naypyidaw.

In his inauguration address, he declared that “Myanmar has returned to the path of democracy and is heading towards a better future”, while acknowledging the country still had many “challenges to overcome.”

Outside Yangon’s Insein prison on Friday, families gathered in the heat, hoping their relatives would be among those freed.

“My brother has been imprisoned for a political case,” 38-year-old Aung Htet Naing told the AFP news agency. “I am hoping that he might be included in today’s release. We cannot expect much because he wasn’t included in previous pardons.”

His caution reflects a documented pattern: according to the Institute for Strategy and Policy Myanmar, fewer than 14 percent of those released in successive amnesties since the coup have been political prisoners.

The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, a human rights group, has said ‌more than 30,000 people were detained on political charges since the 2021 coup.

Suu Kyi has not been seen in public since the conclusion of her trials, and her whereabouts remain unknown. Her son Kim Aris told Reuters last year that he had received only limited information about her condition and that her health was declining.

While Friday’s sentence reduction marks a notable shift, rights groups have long called for her unconditional release, arguing that any sentence rooted in politically motivated charges should be annulled entirely rather than reduced.

“All those detained unjustly since the coup – including state counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi – need to be released immediately and unconditionally. There must be an end to the unrelenting violence against all of Myanmar’s people,” UN rights chief Volker Turk said on X after news of her reduced sentence was reported on Friday. (Aljazeera)

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