Myanmar's military-led government has reduced the prison sentence of deposed leader Aung San Suu Kyi for the second time this month, cutting it by a further one-sixth under a blanket amnesty announced to mark a public holiday. A member of her legal team, speaking anonymously, told reporters that the 80-year-old Nobel Peace Prize laureate will now have to serve approximately 18 more years — a significant reduction from her original 33-year term, itself already cut to 27 in previous amnesties. The latest measure applies to all prisoners, not just Suu Kyi, according to a statement from the presidential office.

Suu Kyi has been imprisoned since February 2021, when the military seized power and toppled her democratically elected government. She was subsequently convicted on a range of charges — including corruption and violating Covid-19 restrictions — that her allies describe as politically motivated. She has been held almost entirely incommunicado, with her family warning of deteriorating health. Once an international symbol of non-violent resistance, she won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 but famously did not travel to Oslo to collect it, fearing she would be denied re-entry to Myanmar, then known as Burma.

The amnesties come at a politically sensitive moment. Min Aung Hlaing, the general who led the 2021 coup, was recently sworn in as civilian president after a tightly controlled election that critics and Western governments widely condemned as a sham. His Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), which is closely aligned with the military, claimed an overwhelming majority. Suu Kyi's own party, the National League for Democracy, was dissolved ahead of the vote, and dozens of other parties were either banned or declined to participate. Only China, Russia, and India officially welcomed the election results.

The sentence reductions are widely seen as an attempt by the junta to soften its international image as Min Aung Hlaing transitions from military commander to nominal civilian leader — a choreographed legitimacy exercise that has drawn scepticism from human rights observers. The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners estimates that more than 30,000 people have been jailed on political charges since the coup, with over 22,000 still behind bars. The United Nations human rights office has also noted that large segments of the population, including the ethnic Rohingya Muslim minority, were excluded from voting due to their denial of citizenship.

Myanmar remains engulfed in civil war, with the conflict estimated to have cost more than 90,000 lives, including soldiers, rebels, and civilians. The country is facing a severe humanitarian crisis, with the UN World Food Programme warning of famine conditions. For Suu Kyi's supporters, the sentence reductions offer little comfort: even at the revised figure, an 80-year-old woman would need to serve nearly two more decades — making her release before death a remote prospect under the current terms.