By Reuters and published by Swissinfo.ch
MYANMAR’S military government will release 9,652 prisoners, including 114 foreigners, under an amnesty to mark the country’s independence day, state media reported on yesterday (Jan. 4).
The Southeast Asian nation has been in turmoil since the military seized power in February 2021, reversing a decade-long democratic experiment, and used deadly force to crush protests.
“With the intention of maintaining relations with other countries and on humanitarian grounds, 114 foreign prisoners will be pardoned,” the junta said in a brief announcement on state media. “They will be deported.”
In the country’s commercial capital Yangon, groups of people gathered outside Insein Prison waiting for prisoners to be released, local media reported.
Among those still imprisoned is Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been appealing sentences adding up to 27 years in detention after being convicted of a string of offences ranging from incitement and election fraud to corruption. She denies all the charges.
The military insists she has received due process by an independent court.
Authorities typically release some prisoners to mark the day when Myanmar declared independence from British rule.
CAPTIONS:
Top: Protesters hold up a portrait of Aung San Suu Kyi and raise three-finger salutes, during a demonstration to mark the second anniversary of Myanmar’s 2021 military coup, outside the Embassy of Myanmar in Bangkok on February 1, 2023. File photo: Reuters/Athit Perawongmetha and published by Swissinfo.ch
Front Page: Residents gesture with a three-fingers salute, a symbol of resistance, as the protesters marching past them in Mandalay in March, 2021.File photo: AP and published by ABC News
(Reporting by Reuters staff, editing by Devjyot Ghoshal)
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