Over 1,500 prisoners granted amnesty on Buddhist holiday; Aung San Suu Kyi sentence reduced

State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi’s 22-year sentence was reduced by one-sixth to 18 years in prison during an amnesty announced by Min Aung Hlaing for a total of 1,519 prisoners, including 11 foreigners, to mark Full Moon Day of Kason on Thursday.

“There [have been] rumors going around that she was going to be moved to house arrest or even potentially freed, but none of that seems to have materialized,” Kim Aris, Aung San Suu Kyi’s son, told DVB in an interview on April 20 – following the Myanmar New Year amnesty that reduced Aung San Suu Kyi’s 27-year prison sentence to 22.

The amnesty on April 17 was granted to a total of 4,514 prisoners, including President Win Myint and filmmaker Shin Daewe.

Min Aung Hlaing, inaugurated as president by a pro-military parliament on April 10, also announced that he would reduce the remaining sentences of all prisoners in Myanmar by one-sixth on April 30.

An official close to the regime’s Prisons Department told DVB on the condition of anonymity that over 200 inmates serving sentences for minor offences and nearing their release dates were freed from Yangon’s Insein Prison on April 30.

A source in the film industry told DVB that film director Aung Chan Lu, was released from Insein Prison only a few months into his seven-year sentence for “disrupting the elections” under the Election Protection Law in November.

Film director Zabu Tun Thet Lwin – arrested alongside Aung Chan Lu – was reportedly released. But DVB is unable to verify this claim independently. 

The Election Protection Law, enacted on July 29, carries a minimum sentence of three years in prison and a maximum penalty of death.

“Even if [my son’s] sentence is cut by one-sixth, he still has to stay in prison for 30 years,” the parent of an inmate at Yangon’s Insein Prison, convicted under the Election Protection Law, told DVB on the condition of anonymity. 

A total of 269 individuals have been charged, 84 people have been arrested, and nine people have been convicted under this law as of Jan. 31, according to DVB data. The heaviest sentence handed out so far was 49 years in prison. 

A former political prisoner told DVB on the condition of anonymity that he wants the regime to release more political detainees. DVB is awaiting figures of how many political prisoners will be freed in this amnesty. 

Four regime amnesties so far this year have reportedly freed a total of 22,391 prisoners. The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) reported that 22,047 people detained for opposing the military coup on Feb. 1, 2021 remain behind bars.