Myanmar’s ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi has been pardoned in five criminal cases, state media said Tuesday. Daw Suu, a name sometimes used by Suu Kyi’s supporters for her, still faces 14 other criminal cases. She has been in detention since she was ousted in a 2021 military coup. The announcement was part of an amnesty of more than 7,000 prisoners to mark Buddhist Lent.
“Chairman of State Administration Council pardons Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, who was sentenced by the relevant courts,” the broadcast said.
Sources told AFP news agency that despite the clemency, Suu Kyi will not be freed from house arrest.
“She couldn’t be freed completely although some sentences against her were pardoned. She still has to face 14 cases. Only five cases out of 19 were pardoned.”
This has reduced Suu Kyi’s sentence by six years in partial pardon, Myanmar’s junta spokesperson said. Former president Win Myint, who was ousted along with Suu Kyi, also received a reduced jail sentence after getting two of his charges pardoned.
Aung San Suu Kyi: Rise and fall of ‘Mother Suu’- Myanmar’s democracy icon
Aung San Suu Kyi moved to Delhi in 1960 and spent most of her young adult life in the United States and England. She met Michael Aris, a British scholar of Himalayan studies at Oxford University, whom she married in 1972.
Suu Kyi, the daughter of Myanmar’s independence hero, Aung San, entered politics in 1988. Ironically, when she returned to Burma from the United Kingdom, the long-time military leader of Burma, General Ne Win, stepped down followed by mass demonstrations. It was the same military regime, this time of General Min Aung Hlaing, which arrested Suu Kyi in 2021 for 33 years, almost a lifetime.
Here is a timeline of key events from Aung San Suu Kyi’s life:
April 1988: Suu Kyi returned to Myanmar to attend to her ailing mother amid pro-democracy protests, which caused the power eruption of the 26-year-old military leader, Gen. Ne Win.
26 Aug 1988: Suu Kyi gave her first-ever public speech before a crowd of approximately 150,000 democracy protestors and issues a call for democracy in Yangon.
27 Sep 1988: Suu Kyi helps founded an opposition party, the National League for Democracy.
20 July 1989: Just a year after returning to her home, Suu Kyi was placed under house arrest. The house arrest continues for six years.
27 May 1990: The National League for Democracy wins a landslide election victory, but the military government nullifies the polls and refuses to hand over power.
Watch | Myanmar Junta pardons Aung San Suu Kyi in State Amnesty
10 July 1995: Aung San Suu Kyi was released after six years of house arrest.
10 Oct 1995: The NLD defies the military government’s ban on changes in party leadership positions and reappoints her as the party’s general secretary.
3 Sep 2000: Suu Kyi is again placed under house arrest, even though her activities have been sharply restricted since early 1997.
6 May 2002: Suu Kyi is released from house arrest, and addresses hundreds of cheering supporters who gather at her house.
30 May 2003: Suu Kyi is detained at Insein Prison in Rangoon when she was near the town of Depayin with her convoy. She is then transferred to her house months after the Depayin attack.
25 May 2007: The military junta extends Aung San Suu Kyi’s term of house arrest for another year.
13 Nov 2010: Suu Kyi is released from years of house arrest.
1 Apr 2012: Suu Kyi wins a seat in Parliament as her party participates in by-elections after the nominally civilian government makes concessions on elections laws.
8 Nov 2015: Suu Kyi’s party wins a sweeping general election. However, the military retains significant power under a constitution written and ratified under army direction in 2008.
25 Aug 2017: Insurgents claiming to represent the Rohingya minority attack security forces, to which the army responds with a brutal counterinsurgency campaign that eventually drives more than 730,000 Rohingyas into Bangladesh.
11 Dec 2019: Suu Kyi defends the military’s actions in preliminary legal proceedings at the International Court of Justice (ICC) to determine whether soldiers committed genocide against the Rohingya.
8 Nov 2020: Suu Kyi’s party captures an even greater majority of parliamentary seats than it did in 2015’s election.
1 Feb 2021: Suu Kyi and top party and government colleagues are detained by the military just before the session of Parliament is to convene. She is subsequently charged with a number of alleged crimes and remains in detention.
6 Dec 2021: A special court issued the first ruling against Suu Kyi, finding her guilty of incitement and breaching coronavirus restrictions. She is sentenced to four years in prison, with more cases still to be settled.
(With inputs from agencies)
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