Foreigners among 6000 prisoners to be freed under Myanmar junta’s annual amnesty
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There was no indication that Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar’s ousted civilian leader, was among those pardoned. Myanmar’s military government has released over 6,000 prisoners in a mass amnesty to mark the country’s 77th Independence Day, state media reported on Saturday.
![[Family members wait to welcome released prisoners from Insein Prison Saturday, 4 Jan 2025, in Yangon, Myanmar, as the military government has released more than 6,000 prisoners and has reduced other inmates’ sentences as part of a mass amnesty to mark the 77th anniversary of independence from Britain]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2025/01/04/08/Myanmar_Amnesty_19616.jpg)
The release, which comes amid long-standing demands from rights groups and international governments to free political detainees, included only a small number of individuals jailed for opposing the military regime. Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, the leader of Myanmar’s military regime, granted pardons for 5,864 domestic prisoners and 180 foreign nationals, who will be deported, according to state-run MRTV.
Mass amnesties are a common practice on national holidays in Myanmar, but the majority of those freed are rarely political detainees. Among those released were approximately 600 prisoners prosecuted under Section 505(A) of Myanmar’s penal code, a broad law used by the military to jail critics for spreading “false news” or creating public unrest.
One notable release was Khet Aung, the former chief minister of Kachin State, who had been serving a 12-year sentence on corruption charges since his arrest following the coup. Major general Zaw Min Tun, the spokesperson for the junta, said many of the freed foreign prisoners included Thais arrested for gambling in the border town of Tachileik and Indonesians detained for fishing in Myanmar’s territorial waters.
