Aung San Suu Kyi, the former civilian leader of Myanmar, has been pardoned on five of the 19 offences for which she was convicted and jailed for a total of 33 years, state media and an informed source reported on Tuesday.
The pardons would mean a reduction of six years in her jail term, junta spokesperson Zaw Min Tun told the Eleven Media Group.
Tuesday’s announcement was part of an amnesty of more than 7,000 prisoners to mark Buddhist Lent. The announcement said 125 foreign prisoners would be released and pardoned. An unspecified number of prisoners facing the death penalty also had their sentences reduced to life imprisonment.
The Nobel Laureate, who last week moved from prison to house arrest in the capital, Nay Pyi Taw, has been in detention since the military seized power in a coup in February 2021.
The military’s State Administration Council also pardoned former president Win Myint, who was arrested at the same time as Aung San Suu Kyi after the coup, on some of the charges for which he was convicted resulting in a reduction of four years in his jail term, the junta spokesman was quoted as saying.
Aung San Suu Kyi, 78, denied all of the charges for which she was convicted, ranging from incitement and election fraud to corruption, and has been appealing them before the Supreme Court.
An informed source said that both Aung San Suu Kyi and Win Myint 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.
Aung San Suu Kyi, the daughter of Myanmar’s independence hero, was first put under house arrest in 1989 after huge protests against decades of military rule.
In 1991, she won the Nobel Peace Prize for campaigning for democracy but was only fully released from house arrest in 2010. She swept a 2015 election, held as part of tentative military reforms and her National League for Democracy (NLD) party won the next election in November 2020.
But the military complained of election fraud after the 2020 vote and said it had to take power in early 2021 to ensure that the complaints were investigated.
An all-new election commission appointed by the junta subsequently reported that it had found 11 million cases of voting irregularities. The NLD rejected the accusations of election fraud.
Many governments, particularly in the West, have called for the unconditional release of Aung San Suu Kyi and thousands of others detained in a bloody crackdown that the junta unleashed against pro-democracy protests.
Aung San Suu Kyi has been seen only once since she was held after the coup — in grainy state media photos from a bare courtroom in Nay Pyi Taw.
There have been concerns about her health since her detention, including during her trial in a junta court that required her to attend almost daily hearings.
She was moved from prison to a government building last week, according to an official from her political party.
In July, Thai Foreign Minister Don Pramudwinai said he had met with Aung San Suu Kyi, the first known meeting with a foreign envoy since she was detained. He reported that her health was good and that she urged al parties involved in the Myanmar conflict to engage in “dialogue”.
One diplomatic source described the pardons as a “cosmetic move”.
“This is a signal to the international community — without doing anything substantive,” said the source who declined to be identified.
The pardons came a day after the junta extended its state of emergency for another six months and once more put off a promised election. The military in 2021 had pledged to hold elections by August 2023, but it cited ongoing violence as a reason to postpone the vote again.
In response to the junta’s announcement, the US State Department said extending the state of emergency would plunge the country “deeper into violence and instability”.
A spokesperson for the United Nations Secretary-General said: “We want to return to democratic rule in Myanmar as soon as possible”.
Myanmar frequently grants amnesties to thousands of prisoners to commemorate holidays or special Buddhist dates.
The junta released some 23,000 prisoners after the 2021 coup in a move that human rights groups feared at the time was aimed at freeing up space for military opponents.
More than 24,000 people have been arrested since the civilian government was overthrown and almost 20,000 remain behind bars, according to the latest figures.