Myanmar junta pardons 10K prisoners on Independence Day

Photojournalist Kaung Sett Lin (center) is greeted by family. Pic/AP

Myanmar's military government on Thursday pardoned nearly 10,000 prisoners to mark the 76th anniversary of gaining independence from Britain, but it wasn't clear if any of those released included the thousands of political detainees jailed for opposing army rule.

The head of Myanmar's military council, Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, pardoned 9,652 prisoners to mark the holiday, state-run MRTV television said. Min Aung Hlaing also granted amnesty to 114 jailed foreigners who will be deported, MRTV said.

The prisoner releases were expected to begin Thursday and take several days to be completed. At Insein Prison in Yangon - notorious for decades for housing political detainees - relatives of prisoners gathered at the gates from early morning.

The identities of those granted pardons were not immediately available. There was no sign that among the prisoners being released would be Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been held virtually incommunicado by the military since it seized power from her elected government in February 2021.

1948
Year Myanmar gained its independence

This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed, agencies. Mid-day accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability, trustworthiness, reliability and data of the text. Mid-day management/mid-day.com reserves the sole right to alter, delete or remove (without notice) the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever