Myanmar reduces Aung San Suu Kyi’s 27-year sentence by a sixth, but Nobel laureate remains behind bars
Myanmar has reduced jailed former leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s prison sentence by a sixth, but the 80-year-old Nobel Peace Prize winner remains detained at an undisclosed location, her lawyer told Reuters on Friday.Suu Kyi is serving a 27-year sentence for a series of crimes that her allies say are politically motivated, including incitement and corruption, electoral fraud and violations of state secrets laws. The commutation meant her sentence was shortened by about 4.5 years.However, she was not among the 4,335 prisoners released under President Min Aung Hlaing’s New Year’s amnesty announced earlier on Friday, state-run MRTV reported. The amnesty also includes commutation of the death penalty to life imprisonment and the reduction of life imprisonment to 40 years.The former leader has not been seen in public since the marathon trials. Her whereabouts remain unknown. Her son, Kim Aris, told Reuters in an interview last year that he had received only limited updates on her condition but knew her health was deteriorating.
Third amnesty in six months
The New Year’s amnesty is the third such release in the past six months. In November 2025, the former military government announced that it would pardon or drop charges against 8,665 people. In January 2026, an Independence Day amnesty resulted in the release of more than 6,000 prisoners. Aung San Suu Kyi was excluded.The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners reports that more than 30,000 people have been detained on political charges since the 2021 coup, including Aung San Suu Kyi, former President Win Myint and thousands of activists and anti-junta militia members.
Min Aung Hlaing’s first pardon since taking office as president
Min Aung Hlaing was elected president by parliament on April 3, formalizing his power in a country still gripped by civil war that has displaced more than 3.5 million people. At his inauguration last week, he said peace, stability and reconciliation were his top priorities.
