The Myanmar military junta said Tuesday it will pardon deposed civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi on five criminal offenses, reducing the 78-year-old's 33-year prison term by six years.
A junta spokesman confirmed the six-year reduction. The decision is seen as amnesty amid the completion of a grand Buddha statue constructed by the junta.
Since the military ousted Suu Kyi's democratically elected government in a February 2021 coup, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate has been detained and convicted on a total of 19 criminal charges. She has filed appeals with courts over the convictions.
The junta also said it will reduce the prison sentence of Win Myint, the former president under Suu Kyi's government.
Clemency was extended to some 7,900 prisoners, including foreigners, to mark the Buddha statue's completion.
The junta did not mention a change of detention site for Suu Kyi, but the BBC's Burmese-language service reported on July 25 that she may have been moved from prison and put under house arrest in the capital Naypyitaw, citing a source close to the prison.
The announcement of the pardons came a day after the junta said it had extended the country's state of emergency, which was due to expire Tuesday, for another six months, delaying a promised general election.
The United States expressed deep concern about Myanmar's fourth extension of the emergency, saying it "comes as the regime plunges the country deeper into violence and instability."
"The regime's widespread brutality and disregard for the democratic aspirations of the people of Burma continue to prolong the crisis," the State Department said in a statement, referring to the Southeast Asian country by its former name.
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