Myanmar's New President Commutes All Death Sentences in Mass New Year Amnesty

Myanmar's newly installed President Min Aung Hlaing ordered the commutation of all death sentences to life imprisonment on Friday, one of his first official acts since taking office, as part of a mass amnesty marking the Thingyan Burmese New Year festival that will see freed, including 179 foreign nationals who will be deported. The order, announced via state television, also reduces all sentences of less than 40 years by one-sixth and converts life sentences to 40-year terms. Former President Win Myint, detained since the February 2021 military coup and later sentenced to more than nine years in prison, was among those released. Award-winning documentary filmmaker Shin Daewe, 53, who had been sentenced to life imprisonment in 2024, was also freed, according to various media reports from Myanmar. Outside Yangon's Insein Prison, hundreds of relatives gathered in the heat to learn whether their family members would be among those pardoned.

Suu Kyi remains detained at undisclosed location Myanmar's most prominent political prisoner, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, was not among those released and continues to serve a 27-year sentence at an undisclosed location. The 80-year-old former State Counsellor has not been seen in public since the conclusion of her trials, and her exact whereabouts remain unknown. Her son, Kim Aris, told Reuters in interviews last year that he had received only limited updates about her condition and that her health was declining. Suu Kyi, who dismissed the charges against her as "absurd," was convicted on a range of offences her allies described as politically motivated, including incitement, corruption, election fraud, and violating a state secrets law. The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners has reported that more than 30,000 people have been detained on political charges since the coup. Less than 14 percent of those released in successive rounds of amnesties since the coup were political prisoners, according to the Institute for Strategy and Policy Myanmar, a think tank.

„My brother has been imprisoned for a political case. I am hoping that he might be included in today's release. We cannot expect much because he wasn't included in previous pardons.” — Aung Htet Naing via France 24

Critics call civilian transition a military rebranding exercise Min Aung Hlaing, 69, was elected president by parliament on April 3 and inaugurated on April 10, following elections that international observers condemned as a maneuver to extend military rule under a civilian guise. The military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party won the December parliamentary elections in a process described by critics as effectively uncontested. At his inauguration, Min Aung Hlaing stated that peace, stability, and reconciliation were his priorities. Democracy watchdogs and international observers have characterized the transition as a civilian rebranding of military rule rather than a genuine democratic shift. The rollback of certain repressive measures, including the amnesty, has been presented by the leadership as reconciliation gestures, but critics describe them as cosmetic steps designed to legitimize the new administration.

Myanmar's military, known as the Tatmadaw, seized power on February 1, 2021, ousting the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi and Win Myint and triggering nationwide protests and an armed conflict that has since displaced more than 3.5 million people, according to Reuters. The junta resumed executions of dissidents after decades without carrying them out, and the United Nations reported that more than 130 people were sentenced to death in 2022 alone. A previous amnesty in May 2023 lifted death sentences for 38 individual prisoners but was not a blanket measure. In November, the former junta announced pardons or dropped charges for 8,665 people, and in January 2026 announced the release of more than 6,000 prisoners in an Independence Day amnesty.

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UN data shows scale of post-coup death sentences The scale of Myanmar's post-coup judicial crackdown has made the blanket commutation order significant in numerical terms, even as rights groups question its broader meaning. According to United Nations data, more than 130 people were sentenced to death in 2022 alone, the year after the coup, though precise figures are difficult to establish given the country's opaque judicial system and ongoing civil war. Human rights advocates have noted that the junta's resumption of executions after decades of hiatus represented a sharp escalation in state violence against dissidents. Friday's order marks the third amnesty in the past six months, following the November and January releases, a pattern critics say reflects a calculated effort to manage international perceptions ahead of and following the political transition. The civil conflict that erupted after the coup has displaced more than 3.5 million people, according to Reuters, and the military continues to conduct airstrikes against opponents, according to Nasz Dziennik. The amnesty covers foreign nationals who will be deported, though the nationalities involved were not disclosed in the state television announcement.