BANGKOK (AP) — Former Myanmar leader jailed Aung San Suu Kyi The military government announced it had released more than 3,000 prisoners under amnesty to mark the traditional New Year's holiday this week, saying they had been moved from prison to house arrest as a health measure amid the heat wave.
Suu Kyi, 78, and ousted government's former president Win Myint, 72, have been placed under house arrest due to the intense heat, military spokesperson Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun said. He was among the elderly and infirm prisoners who were transferred to the hospital. Foreign media sources said late Tuesday. The move has not yet been announced in Myanmar.
Suu Kyi's transfer comes as the military faces a series of difficulties. Big defeat This was done by pro-democracy resistance activists and their ally ethnic minority guerrilla forces.Nationwide conflict began after the military overthrew the elected government February 2021 imprisoned Suu Kyi It then began a crackdown on nonviolent protests calling for a return to democratic rule.
Suu Kyi is serving a 27-year prison sentence for various crimes. guilty verdict Temperatures reached 39 degrees Celsius (102.2 degrees Fahrenheit) on Tuesday afternoon in a specially built annex to the main prison building in the capital Naypyidaw, the Myanmar Meteorological Department said. Win Myint was serving an eight-year prison sentence in Taungoo, Bago region, Myanmar.
Suu Kyi's supporters and independent analysts say the charges were fabricated to discredit her and justify the military's seizure of power. The military has claimed that its National League for Democracy party used widespread electoral fraud to win a landslide victory in the 2020 general election, but independent observers found the claims unconvincing. .
More than 20,351 people arrested on political charges since the military takeover in 2021 remain in detention, most without conviction, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, an independent group that monitors casualties and arrests. I haven't received it.
Suu Kyi's health status His condition reportedly deteriorated in prison. Last September, reports surfaced that she was suffering from symptoms of low blood pressure, including dizziness and loss of appetite, but that she had been refused treatment at a qualified facility outside of prison.
Although these reports could not be independently confirmed, her second son kim alice In an interview, he said he heard that his mother was seriously ill and had gum problems and was unable to eat. Alice, who lives in the UK, has appealed to put pressure on Myanmar's military government to release her mother and other political prisoners.
News about Suu Kyi is tightly controlled by the junta, with even her lawyer barred from speaking to the media about her case under a gag order. Her legal team has faced several obstacles, including not being able to meet with her to receive her instructions since they last met with her in person in December 2022.
It has not been announced whether the measures are temporary.
In comments to the U.S. government-funded Voice of America and Britain's BBC, Spokeswoman Zaw Min Tun did not say where the released prisoners would be taken, but said it was her own former home. There was no indication that it was one of the residences. The lakeside home where Suu Kyi spent most of her years under house arrest is in legal limbo. Court-ordered auction No buyer was found in March.
Before being sent to prison, Suu Kyi was reportedly detained in a military security room on an army base.
State television MRTV said on Wednesday that other prisoners had been released in time for the Tinjan New Year holidays, but it was not immediately clear how many pro-democracy activists and political prisoners were detained for protesting against military rule. It wasn't. Aung Myo Kyaw of the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners said his group had heard that between seven and 10 people had been released in Yangon and nine from a prison in central Magway.
MRTV reported that the chairman of the ruling party's military council, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, pardoned 3,303 prisoners of war, including 28 foreigners who will be expelled from Myanmar. He also commuted the sentences of others. It is not unusual for large-scale amnesties to be carried out on public holidays in Myanmar.
Families and friends gathered outside the gates of Insein Prison in northern Yangon, looking out the windows as they waited in anticipation for buses to transport detainees released from the vast facility. Some of the people waiting held up placards with the names of the people they were looking for, just like in the arrival lobby of an airport.
During a tearful reunion, Khin To Gia said she was happy but had to call her family.
“My family still doesn't know about my release,” she said. Like many political detainees, she was being held on charges of sedition. Sedition charges are widely used to arrest government critics and are punishable by up to three years in prison.
Suu Kyi, the daughter of Myanmar's martyred independence hero General Aung San, spent nearly 15 years as a political prisoner under house arrest by the former military government from 1989 to 2010. Her tough stance against military rule turned her into a symbol of nonviolent struggle. She advocated democracy and she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991.
Shadow unity government spokesman Nai Huong Rut told The Associated Press that relocating Suu Kyi and Win Myint rather than releasing them outright was not satisfactory. . The NUG considers itself the country's legitimate executive branch and functions as an umbrella organization for the opposition.
He said all political prisoners, including these two, were being held unjustly and should be released unconditionally.
He said it was unacceptable for the junta to resolve difficulties through political maneuvers such as changing prisoners' detention locations or commuting their sentences. The military's recent battlefield setbacks, including a defeat against resistance forces last week, Myawaddy Many see this as a sign of the country's growing decline, a major trading city on the border with Thailand.
