BANGKOK (TIP): Myanmar’s ruling military council on May 3 said it was releasing more than 2,100 political prisoners as a humanitarian gesture. Thousands more remain imprisoned on charges generally involving nonviolent protests or criticism of military rule, which began when the army seized power in February 2021 from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi.
State-run MRTV television reported that the head of Myanmar’s military council, Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, had pardoned 2,153 prisoners on the most important Buddhist holy day of the year, marking the birth, enlightenment and death of Buddha.
The releases began Wednesday but may take a few days to be completed. The identities of those released were not immediately available, but would not include Suu Kyi, who is serving a prison term of 33 years on more than a dozen charges her supporters say were trumped up by the military.
According to an official announcement on state media, all of the prisoners granted pardon on Wednesday had been convicted under a section of Myanmar’s penal code that makes it a crime to spread comments that create public unrest or fear, or spread false news, and carries a penalty of up to three years in prison.
The terms of the pardon warn that if the freed detainees violate the law again, they will have to serve the remainder of their original sentences in addition to whatever term they are given for their new offense.
Mass prisoner releases are common on major holidays in Myanmar. The last release of so many political prisoners at one time occurred in July 2021, when 2,296 prisoners were freed.
In November last year, several high-profile political prisoners, including an Australian academic, a Japanese filmmaker, an ex-British diplomat and an American, were released as part of a broad prisoner amnesty that also freed many local citizens held for protesting the army takeover.
The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners said Tuesday that 17,897 people taken into custody since the 2021 army takeover remained in detention. The group keeps detailed tallies of arrests and casualties linked to the repression of the military government. Prisoner releases appear to be efforts by the hard-line military government to soften its image as a major human rights abuser.
Last week, former U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged Myanmar’s military to take the initiative in finding a way out of the country’s violent political crisis, including releasing political detainees, after a surprise meeting with Min Aung Hlaing. (AP)
Tag: Suu Kyi
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Myanmar junta pardons over 2,000 political prisoners in humanitarian gesture
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Court in Myanmar again finds Suu Kyi guilty of corruption, sentences her to 7 years
Bangkok (TIP): A court in military-ruled Myanmar on December 30 convicted the country’s ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi of corruption, sentencing her to seven years in prison in the last of a string of criminal cases against her, a legal official said. The court’s action leaves her with a total of 33 years to serve in prison following a series of politically tinged prosecutions since the army toppled her elected government in February 2021.
She has also been convicted of several other offences, which previously gave her a total of 26 years’ imprisonment. Her supporters and independent analysts say the charges against her are an attempt to legitimise the military’s seizure of power while eliminating her from politics before an election it has promised for next year.
December 30 verdict in the purpose-built courtroom in the main prison on the outskirts of the capital, Naypyitaw, was made known by a legal official who insisted on anonymity for fear of being punished by the authorities.
The trial was closed to the media, diplomats and spectators, and her lawyers were barred by a gag order from talking about it. (AP)
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Myanmar piles on 11th corruption charge against Suu Kyi
Bangkok (TIP): Police in Myanmar have filed an 11th corruption charge against Aung San Suu Kyi, the country’s elected leader who was ousted from power by a military takeover a year ago, state-controlled media reported February 11.
The Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper reported that Suu Kyi was being charged under the Anti-Corruption Law covering bribery, which carries a maximum prison term of 15 years.
Suu Kyi has faced a raft of charges since she was taken into custody when the military seized power on Feb. 1 last year. Her supporters and human rights groups say the cases against her are baseless, and have been contrived to bar her return to politics and participation in a new election the army has promised by 2023.
Suu Kyi has already been sentenced to six years’ imprisonment after being convicted of illegally importing and possessing walkie-talkies and violating coronavirus restrictions. She is also being tried on the charge of violating the Official Secrets Act, which carries a maximum sentence of 14 years. Australian economist Sean Turnell, who was her advisor, is a co-defendant.
A court session in the capital Naypyitaw in the secrets case was postponed Thursday because the 76-year-old Suu Kyi was suffering from low blood pressure, causing dizziness, said a person familiar with the proceedings, speaking on condition of anonymity because the hearings are closed. But she was back in court Friday when hearings began on five corruption charges related to granting permission to rent and buy a helicopter. (AP)
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Myanmar protesters urge ‘guerrilla strikes’ as internet blackout widens
Myanmar (TIP): Myanmar activists held candle-lit protests overnight and scrambled to find workarounds for a new internet shut down on Friday, as opponents to the military’s bloody crackdown on dissent vowed no letup in efforts to unseat the ruling generals. Anti-coup groups shared radio frequencies, offline internet resources and providers of text message news alerts to try to circumvent new curbs on the internet, which now limit Web access to fixed-line services only. The military did not announce or explain its order to telecom firms to cut wireless broadband, which adds to a ban on mobile data through which a nationwide movement has mobilised on social media and spread images of the junta’s lethal suppression of mostly youth-led protests.
Late on Thursday, protesters spread a call for a “flower strike” at bus stops where demonstrators killed by security forces had departed on their last journeys.
“We will leave flowers at bus stops tomorrow … That’s what I want to tell you guys before the internet is down,” Khin Sadar, a protest leader, posted on Facebook.
“In the following days, there were street protests. Do as many guerrilla strikes as you can. Please join.” “Let’s listen to the radio again. Let’s make phone calls to each other too.”
The former British colony has been in chaos for two months following the military’s overthrow of Aung San Suu Kyi’s elected administration, which has sparked anger across towns and cities and reignited hostilities between the armed forces and ethnic minority insurgents in several different regions.
New charges of violating the official secrets act were filed against the Nobel laureate, her chief lawyer said on Thursday, the most serious so far, on top of two comparatively minor offences. Breaches of the colonial-era law are punishable by 14 years in prison.
The charges were filed against three of Suu Kyi’s deposed cabinet ministers and her Australian economic adviser Sean Turnell, who are among hundreds detained in the military’s sweeping crackdown on opponents since it took power, alleging fraud in an election swept by Suu Kyi’s party. Lawyer Min Min Soe said Suu Kyi looked in good health during a video hearing on Thursday but was unable to tell whether the ousted leader, the figurehead of Myanmar’s decades-long fight for democracy, was aware of the situation in her country.
‘WE WILL NOT SURRENDER’
Protesters were in the streets in several urban centres day and night on Thursday, where some burned copies of the military-drafted 2008 constitution. The media reported two people were killed, including an 18-year-old man, as police opened fire to quell gatherings.
Khit Thit Media reported shots were fired at a protest during the night, where 400 troops were present. The report could not immediately be verified.
Some 543 people have been killed in the uprising, according to the Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) advocacy group, which is tracking casualties and detentions. —Reuters