Germany Myanmar's military junta pardons thousands of prisoners
Myanmar's military junta has released more than 5,800 prisoners across the country, including around 600 political prisoners, as part of an amnesty to mark the 77th Independence Day. This was reported by the junta's television station. Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, who was ousted in the military coup in February 2021 and sentenced to a long prison term in 2022, was not included in the amnesty.
04.01.2025, 12:59
SDA
According to the junta broadcaster, however, Khet Aung, the former prime minister of Kachin state from Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) party, was released. Northern Kachin State is one of Myanmar's administrative divisions.
The political prisoners were charged under Section 505. After the coup, the military junta added a section to criminalize "false reports" and "incitement" against the military.
180 foreign prisoners also pardoned
The military junta also reportedly reduced the sentences of 144 people who had been sentenced to life imprisonment to 15 years. According to General Zaw Min Tun, the military junta's spokesman, 180 foreign prisoners, including Thai and Indonesian nationals, were also pardoned and deported.
Most of the Thai nationals were imprisoned in the small town of Tachileik near the border with Thailand for gambling, while the Indonesian nationals had been fishing in Myanmar's territorial waters.
Since the coup in 2021, the former Burma, which was a British colony until 1948, has descended into chaos and violence. Various rebel groups are fighting against the army, sometimes very successfully. The generals continue to use violence against all opponents.
