Irrawaddy/AFP-Jan 4
Myanmar’s junta said on Sunday it would release more than 6,000 prisoners as part of an annual amnesty to mark the country’s independence day. The military has arrested thousands of protesters and activists since its February 2021 coup that ended Myanmar’s brief democratic experiment and plunged the nation into civil war. Junta chief Min Aung Hlaing has pardoned 6,134 imprisoned Myanmar nationals, the National Defense and Security Council said in a statement. Fifty-two foreign prisoners were also to be released and deported, it said in a separate statement. The yearly prisoner amnesty “on humanitarian and compassionate grounds”, according to the national security council, comes as the country marks 78 years of independence from British colonial rule. Hundreds of people were waiting for the release of their family members outside Yangon’s Insein prison on Sunday, holding papers with names of prisoners on them, an AFP journalist said. “I am waiting for my dad to be released. He was arrested and imprisoned for doing politics,” said one man outside the prison, which is notorious for alleged brutal rights abuses. A key aide to Aung San Suu Kyi was among hundreds of prisoners freed by the junta in a pre-election amnesty in November. The junta said that month that more than 3,000 prisoners would have their sentences dropped, after they were prosecuted under post-coup legislation restricting free speech. Read more at: https://www.irrawaddy.com/news/burma/myanmar-junta-says-to-release-over-6000-prisoners-in-annual-amnesty.html’
