Myanmar's Military Junta Pardons Aung San Suu Kyi's Five Mistakes: Still Has 14 Sentences, Remains Under House Arrest

Illustration of Aung San Suu Kyi while attending the NLD event. (Wikimedia Commons/Htoo Tay Zar)

JAKARTA - Myanmar's military junta that came to power on Tuesday pardoned five of Aung San Suu Kyi's 19 offenses for which she was sentenced, although she remains under house arrest according to state media and sources familiar with the matter.

With this pardon, Suu Kyi's sentence which has so far reached 33 years, will be reduced by six years, junta spokesman Zaw Min Tun told Eleven Media Group, adding this was part of an amnesty under which more than 7,000 prisoners had been released across the country hit by this dispute.

Myanmar has been in bloody upheaval since 2021, when the military overthrew Suu Kyi's elected government in a February 1 coup, launching a crackdown on opponents of military rule that has left thousands imprisoned or killed.

On Monday, the junta postponed elections promised in August this year, extending a six-month state of emergency that critics say will prolong the crisis.

Last week, Suu Kyi, 78-year-old Nobel Peace Prize winner, was transferred from the prison where he has been held since the coup to house arrest in the capital, Naypyitaw.

Suu Kyi herself denies all the charges against her, ranging from sedition and election fraud to corruption, having appealed the charges.

Furthermore, a spokesman for the military junta said, the military's State Administrative Council also reduced the four-year prison term of former president Win Myint, who was arrested at the same time as Suu Kyi.

"She will not be released from house arrest," said the source, who wished to remain anonymous because of the sensitivity of the matter, reported by Reuters on August 1.

The sentences he pardoned were lenient ones, including violating natural disaster mitigation laws by violating COVID-19 rules while campaigning for elections, the sources said.

Suu Kyi, the daughter of Myanmar's independence hero, was first placed under house arrest in 1989 after massive protests against decades of military rule.

It is known, many governments of foreign countries have called for the unconditional release of Suu Kyi and thousands of other political prisoners.

Separately, one diplomatic source described Tuesday's pardon as a "cosmetic move".

"This is a signal to the international community - without doing anything substantive," said the source, who wished to remain anonymous.

Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the shadowy National Unity Government formed by supporters of Suu Kyi and opponents of the military said the partial pardon for Suu Kyi and Win Myint showed the military was feeling pressured not only by Western countries, but also by neighboring countries in Southeast Asia calling for a resolution to the crisis in Myanmar.

"This is just a political trick... aimed at reducing pressure," said the group's spokesman Kyaw Zaw.

"They must be released unconditionally because they were detained arbitrarily. All political prisoners must be released," he concluded.