Myanmar leader commutes all death sentences
The human rights group said the military junta led by Min Aung Hlaing seized power in Myanmar in February 2021 and resumed executions, targeting dissidents who opposed the coup, after not carrying out executions for decades.
Also Read: India aims to increase turnout as Myanmar elects new president
The following year, more than 130 people were sentenced to death, according to the United Nations; But exact figures are difficult to track in the country’s opaque, closed court system.
Min Aung Hlaing was appointed president last Friday, after five years as armed forces chief, in a transition that democracy watchdogs described as a civilian rebranding of military rule.
This change was accompanied by the rollback of some of the repressive measures implemented by the junta after the coup; steps that leadership touts as a compromise, but critics describe them as cosmetic measures to aid rebranding efforts.
A statement issued on behalf of Min Aung Hlaing said “those serving the death penalty will have their sentences commuted to life imprisonment,” without naming specific prisoners. The amnesty in May 2023 lifted the death penalty for 38 prisoners, but it was not a general measure.
Friday’s action was announced as part of a broader amnesty to mark Myanmar’s Thingyan new year, one of many public holidays on which amnesty orders are regularly announced.
According to the statement, more than 4,300 prisoners, as well as 179 foreign nationals, were planned to be released, while all sentences for those under the age of 40 were reduced by one sixth.
– Relatives are expected –
Outside the barbed wire fence of Yangon’s Insein prison, large families waited in sweltering heat to hear whether their detained relatives would be among those pardoned.
“My brother was imprisoned for a political case,” said Aung Htet Naing, 38. “I hope it can be included in today’s broadcast.”
“We cannot expect much since it was not included in previous amnesties.”
According to a statement made by the Myanmar Strategy and Policy Institute late last year, less than 14 percent of those released in successive general amnesties since the coup were political prisoners.
According to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, more than 30,000 people have been detained for political reasons since the coup.
Myanmar’s most famous political prisoner, Aung San Suu Kyi, remains incommunicado to serve a 27-year prison sentence that human rights groups accuse of being politically motivated.
Min Aung Hlaing has brushed aside the Nobel Peace Prize winner’s massively popular government in 2021, claiming the government seized power through mass voter fraud in the previous year’s polls.
Election observers said there was no evidence of this and that the military, which has ruled Myanmar for much of its history, is fighting back against power as it worries about its influence diminishing after its landslide victory.
The coup pitted pro-democracy guerrillas and long-active ethnic minority armies against the military, triggering an ongoing civil war.
Also Read: Myanmar junta chief Min Aung Hlaing sworn in as president
A junta-organised election concluded in January, reversing the outcome of the 2020 poll as pro-military parties took victory.
Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party was dissolved and banned from participating in elections; Protesting or criticizing the poll was made a crime punishable by imprisonment, and voting was not held in rebel-held areas.
MPs who participated in the election voted overwhelmingly for Min Aung Hlaing to serve as president, and he was sworn into office last week to begin his five-year term.
