Ousted Myanmar leader’s 33-year jail term cut by six years

Myanmar junta partially pardoned charges against the ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi, cutting her 33-year jail sentence by six years.

The Western-backed leader Suu Kyi, 78, was convicted on 19 offences and sentenced to 33 years of imprisonment after being detained since the military coup in early 2021, on cases ranging from corruption to election fraud.

The pardon will give her a reduction of six years in prison, junta spokesperson Zaw Min Tun told the Eleven Media Group.

She was moved to the capital city of Naypyitaw last week from prison and was placed under house arrest.

Former president Win Myint, who was arrested along with Suu Kyi following the 2021 military coup, was also pardoned four years in jail terms, Zaw Min Tun told state media.

Suu Kyi was president in 2017 campaigning for democracy, when the great genocide on Rohingya Muslims took place by the Myanmar military.

Myanmar’s military leaders claim that the Nobel Laureate colluded with them during her tenure as the country’s civilian leader in the killing and brutal displacement of nearly 700,000 minority Rohingya Muslims.

The displacement of Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar’s Rakhine state started in October 2016, during Suu Kyi government, following the crackdown by Burmese security forces. While tens of thousands were internally displaced, many others fled to neighboring Bangladesh and India.

In August 2017, however, things took a rough turn after Rohingya refugees fled to Bangladesh en masse to escape persecution, murder, arson, and rape. It was described by the United Nations as “a textbook example of ethnic cleansing”.

Suu Kyi defended the army’s conduct by traveling to The Hague to rebut charges of genocide at the UN’s top court in December 2019.

The mostly Muslim Rohingya have for decades been denied citizenship, rights, access to services, and freedom of movement.

In July 2021, the UN Human Rights Council adopted a resolution denouncing violations by Myanmar’s military against Muslims and other ethnic minorities.

SS