Myanmar's new civilian president Min Aung Hlaing has commuted all death sentences in the country, converting them to life imprisonment in one of his first official acts since being sworn into office last week. The blanket order, announced on Friday, came as part of a broader amnesty marking Thingyan, Myanmar's traditional new year — a national holiday during which pardons are customarily granted.

A communiqué issued on Min Aung Hlaing's behalf stated simply that "those serving death sentences shall have their sentences commuted to life imprisonment," without naming specific individuals. The broader amnesty includes the release of more than 4,300 prisoners and 179 foreign nationals, while all sentences under 40 years are to be reduced by one-sixth. The move follows a more limited May 2023 amnesty that lifted death sentences for 38 named individuals but fell short of a blanket measure.

The scale of Myanmar's political detention underscores why many observers view the gesture with scepticism. More than 30,000 people have been imprisoned for political reasons since the February 2021 coup, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners. The United Nations documented over 130 death sentences handed down in the year following the coup alone — though precise figures remain difficult to verify in the country's secretive, closed judicial system. Rights groups note that the military resumed executions after decades without carrying them out, primarily targeting dissidents who opposed the coup. Fewer than 14 percent of those freed in successive amnesty rounds since 2021 have been political prisoners, according to the Institute for Strategy and Policy Myanmar.

Min Aung Hlaing, 69, led the coup that ousted Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi's elected government, alleging widespread voter fraud in the 2020 elections — claims rejected by international election monitors. He ruled for five years as armed forces chief before being installed as president following a junta-organised election in January, in which pro-military parties won overwhelmingly after Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy was dissolved and barred from participating. Democracy watchdogs have described this transition as a civilian rebranding of military rule rather than a genuine shift toward democracy. Suu Kyi herself remains detained in an undisclosed location, serving a 27-year sentence that rights groups condemn as politically motivated.

The commutation of death sentences, while significant in scope, is being interpreted by critics as a cosmetic measure designed to soften the regime's international image rather than signal a genuine change in direction. Outside Yangon's Insein prison, families gathered in the heat hoping to learn whether their relatives would be among those freed — a reminder that behind the political calculations lie tens of thousands of personal stories. Myanmar has been engulfed in civil war since the coup, with pro-democracy guerrillas and ethnic minority armed groups continuing to fight the military across much of the country.