ruling military government announced the release of 5,864 prisoners, including 180 foreigners, under an amnesty, state media reported on Saturday.
The annual pardon will mark the country’s 77th independence day. Myanmar regularly announces prisoner release orders en masse on independence day.
What else do we know about the release order?
Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun, the spokesperson for the military government, said in an audio note to journalists that among the released were some 600 prisoners who were prosecuted under Section 505(A) of Myanmar’s penal code.
The Article criminalizes spreading comments which create public unrest or fear, as well as spreading false news.
Khet Aung, a former chief minister of the southern Kachin state who was arrested soon after the 2021 army take over was among those set to be freed, Zaw Min Tun added. Khet Aung was sentenced in April 2022 to 12 years in prison on corruption charges.
The majority of the foreigners set to be freed are Thais who had been arrested in the border town of Tachileik in eastern Myanmar for gambling, Zaw Min Tun said. Some are also Indonesians who had been arrested in Myanmar’s territorial waters.
The release of the prisoners began on Saturday but is expected to take a few days to be concluded.
Friends and families of detainees waited since morning outside of Insein Prison in the country’s largest city, Yangon. Prisoners were bussed out of the facility.
Where is Aung San Suu Kyi?
It was not clear whether Myanmar’s ousted civilian leader was among those ordered released.
Suu Kyi and other elderly prisoners were reportedly moved to as a precaution against heat exhaustion.
Suu Kyi, who spent decades under house arrest during a previous military junta and has been a symbol of opposition to decades of military rule, has been in jail since the military seized power in 2021.
The Nobel laureate is serving a combined 27-year sentence after being convicted of a string of criminal charges.
She has denied all of the charges levied against her and rights groups say her convictions are politically motivated.
At least 28,096 people have been arrestedsince 2021, according to Assistance Association of Political Prisoners (AAPP) monitoring group.
Myanmar in turmoil
after the army took power from Suu Kyi’s government on February 1, 2021.
Security forces brutally clamped down on protests and hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced.
More than 4,000 people, mostly civilians, have been killed by the military in its attempt to assert control, according to human rights watchdog organization Amnesty International.
The military government promised it would hold elections this year, but opposition groups have criticized the move as just a facade of political change that is meant to appease the international community but does little to shift power to civilians.
rmt, ess/rm (Reuters, AFP, DW sources)
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