Tue 01 August 2023:
Myanmar’s military junta on Tuesday pardoned imprisoned leader Aung San Suu Kyi, according to local media reports.
She is appealing the convictions for the 19 offences, which range from incitement and election fraud to corruption.
She denied all of the charges.
According to Myanmar Now, the former president Win Myint will also receive clemency.
Since the February 2021 coup, the former National League for Democracy party leaders have been detained.
The pardons, announced on state media on Tuesday, were part of an amnesty granted to more than 7,000 prisoners to mark Buddhist Lent.
The change occurs a day after the junta, for the fourth time since the coup, extended the country of Southeast Asia’s state of emergency by six months.
“The clemency will not pardon Aung San Suu Kyi and President Win Myint for all of the alleged offences, but merely reduce their sentences,” the report added.
An informed source told the Reuters news agency that despite the pardons, Aung San Suu Kyi would remain in detention.
“She won’t be free from house arrest,” said the source, who declined to be identified due to the sensitivity of the issue.
The AFP news agency, meanwhile, said the 78-year-old politician still faces 14 other cases.
“She couldn’t be freed completely although some sentences against her were pardoned. She still has to face 14 cases. Only five cases out of 19 were pardoned,” a legal source was quoted as saying.
Aung San Suu Kyi won the election by a landslide in November 2020, but the military alleged fraud and said it had to seize power to investigate the complaints.
Security forces used deadly force against nonviolent protestors after the coup, throwing Myanmar into disarray and sparking an armed uprising against their government. According to a local monitoring group, the crackdown has resulted in the deaths of almost 3,800 people.
Additionally, more than 1.6 million people have been displaced nationwide due to fighting between military and civilian groups.
SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES
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