Myanmar mass prison sentence cut trims Suu Kyi's sentence

YANGON, Myanmar: Myanmar’s coup-chief turned president cut all prisoners’ sentences by one-sixth on Thursday, a blanket measure a source close to deposed leader Aung San Suu Kyi said would further shorten her detention.

Suu Kyi has been sequestered since a 2021 military coup, but the senior member of her dissolved National League for Democracy (NLD) party said while her term had been reduced, her remaining sentence is still unclear.

“We also don’t know exactly how many years she has left,” the source told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity for security reasons.

The military toppled Suu Kyi’s elected government five years ago, sweeping her into detention on a host of charges rights groups say were confected to sideline her and triggering civil war.

Since then, Myanmar has been led by Min Aung Hlaing, first as military chief before he was this month sworn in as civilian president after a tightly restricted election excluding the NLD.

Democracy monitors described the process as a rebranding of military rule and have likewise dismissed rollbacks of some post-coup curbs as lip-service measures designed to reform the image of the government.

A statement from Min Aung Hlaing’s presidential office said to mark a public holiday on Thursday, prisoners will “have their remaining sentences cut by one-sixth”.

It did not mention any prisoners by name, but the NLD source said 80-year-old Suu Kyi “will also get one-sixth reduction of her remaining sentences”.

However, it remains unclear how much of Suu Kyi’s sentence handed down inside Myanmar’s opaque court system is by now considered served, and therefore by how much her term will be trimmed.

Suu Kyi was initially convicted in closed-court trials and handed a sentence of more than three decades on charges ranging from corruption to breaching Covid-19 regulations.

A 2023 pardon of some crimes saw the Nobel Peace Prize laureate’s sentence reduced to 27 years.

In one of his first acts as civilian president, Min Aung Hlaing this month issued another public holiday blanket order nearly identical to Thursday’s, trimming more time off Suu Kyi’s sentence.

He also pardoned Suu Kyi’s top aide Win Myint who served as her ceremonial president, prompting speculation her detention may be significantly relaxed next.

Suu Kyi remains massively popular inside Myanmar but has been held almost completely incommunicado as her family warn of her ailing health.