Myanmar: Junta Reduces Prison Sentences Of Aung San Suu Kyi And Win Myint

Myanmar’s military has cut the prison term of the jailed head of the deposed National League for Democracy, Aung San Suu Kyi, by six years, the junta announced Tuesday.

It also cut four years from the sentences against the country’s ousted president Win Myint.

The move was part of a broader amnesty to mark the full moon day of Waso, in which 7,749 inmates were set to be released Tuesday from prisons across the country. Waso, also known as Dhammasetkya Day, commemorates the first sermon Buddha ever delivered.

The junta often announces amnesties on Buddhist religious days.

According to the military’s Tuesday announcement, six years were cut from five cases against Suu Kyi. They relate to the Natural Disaster Management Law, the Communication Law and one case under Section 505 (b) of the Penal Code, which deals with defaming the country’s military and undermining state order.

Suu Kyi still has to serve 27 years in prison, according to the sentences already handed down against her.

Last month, the 78-year old was moved from a prison in the capital Naypyidaw to “a more comfortable state-owned residence,” a party official and a source with ties to the prison told RFA last Friday.

The National League for Democracy won a landslide victory in national elections in 2020 but was ousted in a Feb. 1, 2021 coup. Suu Kyi was arrested in Naypyidaw shortly after the coup along with then-president Win Myint.

The junta said Tuesday that Win Myint’s 12 years of combined prison sentences have been reduced by four years, taken from a charge under Section 505 (b) and one under the Natural Disaster Management Law.

Win Myint is reportedly in poor health. In June, the 72-year-old wastreated for an unspecified disease at Bago region’s Taungoo Prison, sources close to him told RFA at the time.

While the families of prisoners waited outside prisons across Myanmar Tuesday, the wife of ousted Social Affairs Minister Naing Ngan Lin told RFA she had heard nothing about the fate of her jailed husband.

“I did not expect much for him, since he is in their hands,” Khin Sandar Win said. 

“They can release him at any time and they don’t release him if they don’t want to. That’s why I did not expect him [to be released] because he was sentenced to 15 years. I thought the worst and I will be glad if it becomes the best.”

Khin Sandar Win said she thought the decision to reduce Aung San Suu Kyi’s sentence was “ambiguous,” as the former state counselor still faces a long prison term.

David Mathieson, an independent analyst on Myanmar, told the AFP news agency the partial pardon was a “cynical ploy to tell the world that there might be some kind of political resolution coming [w]hen we know that there is not”.

“I think they are just playing cruel games with a political prisoner,” he said.

“All the charges against her are absurd and shaving six years off 33 isn’t mercy.”

On Monday, the junta extended its State of Emergency for a fourth time, delaying elections it had vowed to hold by the end of the year.

The U.S. State Department said it was “deeply concerned” by the move.

“The regime’s widespread brutality and disregard for the democratic aspirations of the people of Burma continue to prolong the crisis,” said spokesperson Matthew Miller, adding that the U.S. would continue to work with its allies to put political and economic pressure on the regime.

“We continue to call for it to end its violence and atrocities, release those unjustly detained, allow unhindered humanitarian access, seek justice for survivors, and engage with all stakeholders to pursue a peaceful, just, and democratic future for Burma.”