Myanmar’s jailed State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi has been given a further one-sixth reduction in her sentence as part of an amnesty, a member of her legal team said on Thursday, the second such commutation in two weeks.
The Nobel laureate, who has been held since being toppled by the military in a Feb. 1, 2021 coup, will now have just over 18 years left to serve, the legal team member said, declining to be identified by name.
After a marathon run of trials, Aung San Suu Kyi, 80, was sentenced to 33 years after convictions on charges ranging from corruption and inciting election fraud to violating state secrecy rules, which her allies maintain were politically motivated and aimed at sidelining her.
That sentence was was later commuted to 27 years, and then by a sixth in a Myanmar New Year amnesty on April 17 that freed her ally and co-defendent President Win Myint.
The latest reduction comes after an announcement by regime media on April 30 saying that all prisoners would have their sentences commuted.
Aung San Suu Kyi’s whereabouts are unknown and she has not been seen in public since the trials.
Authorities continue to hold her at an undisclosed location, and the regime in Naypyidaw has yet to grant her legal team or family face-to-face access.
A spokesperson for the regime did not immediately respond to calls seeking comment.
Regime leader Min Aung Hlaing, who overthrew Aung San Suu Kyi in the 2021 coup, has faced persistent international pressure to release political detainees since a recent election, including from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), which he is seeking to reengage with after being barred from its summits.
Min Aung Hlaing, who was inaugurated as Myanmar’s president by a pro-military parliament on April 10 following highly controversial elections, last week told Thailand’s foreign minister that Aung San Suu Kyi was being “well looked after.”
REUTERS
