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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
World
Guardian staff and agencies

Myanmar junta to free about 6,000 prisoners in annual amnesty, including 180 foreigners

People gather around a bus carrying inmates on their release from Insein prison in Yangon, Myanmar, in 2023
People gather around a bus carrying inmates on their release from Insein prison in Yangon, Myanmar, in 2023. State media said on Saturday that about 6,000 prisoners would be freed to mark independence day. Photograph: Nyein Chan Naing/EPA

Myanmar’s military government will release about 6,000 prisoners and has reduced other inmates’ sentences as part of a mass amnesty on Saturday marking the 77th anniversary of independence from Britain.

There was no sign that the prisoner release would include Aung San Suu Kyi, 79, who has been held virtually incommunicado by the military since it seized power from her elected government in 2021. She is serving a 27-year sentence after being convicted of a series of politically tinged prosecutions brought by the military.

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