YANGON, Feb 12, 2021 (BSS/XINHUA) – The State Administration Council of
Myanmar remitted sentences of 23,314 local prisoners and 55 foreign prisoners
on Friday, according to the council’s orders.
Sen-Gen Min Aung Hlaing, as chair of the council, granted pardon to the
inmates who received punishments for any offence before Jan. 31 this year.
The state pardon order reduced the death penalty to life imprisonment with
no possibility of release, life imprisonment and with no possibility of
release to 40 years, excluding those who have been pardoned from the death
penalty to life imprisonment in the previous amnesty orders.
Prisoners who have been sentenced to life imprisonment in the previous
amnesty orders will be reduced to 50 years of imprisonment, punishment of
more than 40 years of imprisonment will be reduced to 40 years while 40 years
and under are cut one-fourth, it said.
The moves aim to turn the prisoners into decent citizens, to please the
public and to create the humanitarian and compassionate grounds while
establishing a new democratic state with peace, development and disciplines,
the council said.
A one-year state of emergency was declared in Myanmar after President U Win
Myint and State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi were detained by the military on
Feb. 1.
The state power was handed over to Commander-in-Chief of Defence Services
Sen-Gen Min Aung Hlaing, and the State Administration Council was formed
later.