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Myanmar military grants partial clemency to jailed Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi
Suu Kyi, who faced 33 years in jail on various charges, including those of corruption, and conspiracy against the state, would now have to serve 27 years after the partial clemency that would take six years off her sentence.
Aung San Suu Kyi, former prime minister of Myanmar and winner of the prestigious Nobel Prize, who was currently lodged in jail following the military coup in 2021, has been granted partial clemency by the ruling military junta.
Suu Kyi, who faced 33 years in jail on various charges, including those of corruption, and conspiracy against the state, would now have to serve 27 years after the partial clemency that would take six years off her sentence.
The reduction in her sentence would however of little value for the 78-year-old Nobel laureate as it still meant a life term for her. Suu Kyi was overthrown in a coup in 2021.
The reduction of Suu Kyi’s sentence was announced on Tuesday by military officer Aung Lin Dwe. According to state television, Suu Kyi was pardoned for five offenses, including violating coronavirus restrictions, illegally importing and possessing walkie-talkies, and sedition. An additional 7,000 prisoners were also granted clemency to mark a Buddhist holiday, the report added.
She was arrested and removed from power in a military coup in February 2021, after Myanmar’s top generals declared her electoral victory the previous November fraudulent. The military promised to hold new elections this year, but on Monday extended the state of emergency that it declared after seizing power in 2021.
Although celebrated by Western politicians and journalists throughout her detention and subsequent rise to power, Suu Kyi fell out of favor with her former backers when she presided over a controversial crackdown on the Rohingya Muslim minority in the country, which saw her accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice in 2019.
Suu Kyi was awarded Nobel Prize in 1991 for her non-violent struggle for democracy and human rights. ‘’Suu Kyi's struggle is one of the most extraordinary examples of civil courage in Asia in recent decades. She has become an important symbol in the struggle against oppression,’’ the Award Committee had said.
