Myanmar junta frees cancer-stricken ally of Suu Kyi on health grounds

YANGON – A close ally of detained Myanmar democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi was granted amnesty by the junta authorities as he battles cancer, according to a party source.

Mr Zaw Myint Maung, 72, is a stalwart of Ms Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) party that has been a thorn in the side of the military during its decades of rule.

He was arrested following the military’s latest coup in 2021 and later jailed for corruption.

“He was pardoned because of his health situation today,” a senior NLD source told Agence France-Presse, requesting anonymity for security reasons.

Mr Zaw Myint Maung was in an intensive care unit in Mandalay, where he was battling cancer.

“His condition is 50-50. We are trying to get more information,” the source said.

Mr Zaw Myint Maung was a former chief minister of the Mandalay region and was detained shortly after the coup that upended a 10-year experiment with democracy in Myanmar.

The junta’s subsequent crackdown on dissent has decimated the senior ranks of the NLD.

Months after the coup, Mr Nyan Win, a former NLD spokesman and Suu Kyi confidante, died of Covid-19 while being held in military custody for sedition.

In 2022, another former lawmaker was executed by the junta in Myanmar’s first use of capital punishment in decades.

In March 2023, the junta dissolved the NLD for failing to re-register under a tough new military-drafted electoral law, removing it from polls it has indicated it may hold in 2025.

Ms Suu Kyi, 79, is serving a 27-year prison sentence on charges ranging from corruption to not respecting Covid-19 pandemic restrictions.

Rights groups say her closed-door trial was a sham designed to remove her from the political scene.

In September, Italian media reported that Pope Francis has offered refuge on Vatican territory to Ms Suu Kyi, who led the government ousted by the military in 2021. AFP