Official media and sources told Reuters on Tuesday that Myanmar's ruling military council has granted a pardon to former leader Aung San Suu Kyi on five out of 19 charges she was convicted of, but she will remain under house arrest.
Military council spokesman Zaw Min Tun stated to Eleven Media Group that the pardon reduces her 33-year prison sentence by six years. He added that this is part of a broader amnesty in which more than seven thousand prisoners have been released across Myanmar.
Last week, Nobel laureate Suu Kyi was transferred from prison to house arrest in the capital Naypyidaw. She has been detained since the military coup in early 2021. Suu Kyi (78) denies all charges against her, which include incitement, electoral fraud, and corruption.
A military council spokesman was quoted as saying that the State Administration Council has also reduced the prison term of former president Win Myint by four years, who was detained at the same time as Suu Kyi.
A source familiar with the situation told Reuters that both Suu Kyi and Win Myint will remain in detention. The source added that the convictions against her pertained to minor charges including violations of disaster management laws and COVID-19 regulations during the election campaign.
Suu Kyi, daughter of Myanmar's independence hero, was first placed under house arrest in 1989 following protests against military rule.
The military council announced on Monday that it has postponed the elections it had promised by August of this year and extended the state of emergency by six months, which critics believe will prolong the crisis.
The Southeast Asian country has been in turmoil since early 2021 when the military ousted Suu Kyi's elected government and launched a crackdown on opposition to military rule, resulting in thousands being imprisoned or killed.
In 1991, she won the Nobel Peace Prize for her campaign for democracy, but was not released from house arrest until 2010. She achieved a landslide victory in the 2015 elections, held as part of tentative military reforms, and her party won the subsequent elections in November 2020.
However, the military lodged complaints of electoral fraud after the 2020 elections, claiming it had to seize power in early 2021 to ensure investigations into the complaints. Suu Kyi's party rejected the allegations of electoral fraud.
