Myanmar’s ex-president Win Myint freed after pardon of post-coup convictions

YANGON – Former Myanmar president Win Myint, detained since a 2021 coup, was freed on April 17 after being pardoned of convictions handed down during the post-putsch period of military rule.

Mr Win Myint served as president starting in 2018, with Myanmar in the midst of a decade-long experiment with civilian rule that was abruptly halted by the coup.

While he occupied the top spot, it functioned as a ceremonial role following the lead of de facto government head Aung San Suu Kyi, who was barred from holding the presidency under a military-drafted Constitution.

Ms Suu Kyi, the octogenarian Nobel Peace Prize laureate, remains detained, serving a 27-year sentence that rights groups decry as a politically motivated move to hobble her National League for Democracy (NLD) party.

Her lawyer said the sentence had been cut by one-sixth, or around 4½ years, but it remained unclear whether she would be allowed to serve the rest of her sentence under house arrest.

“The President has pardoned Win Myint,” said a statement from the office of President Min Aung Hlaing – who ordered the coup detaining Mr Win Myint. The latter was convicted of a host of crimes that critics say were politically motivated.

Dr Myo Nyunt, spokesman for the NLD, which was dissolved after the coup, told AFP he had visited the former president at his daughter’s house in the capital Naypyitaw and that he was “in good health”.

After five years ruling as armed forces chief, Mr Min Aung Hlaing was installed on April 10 as civilian leader in a transition that democracy watchdogs have described as a rebranding of military rule.

The shift has been accompanied by rollbacks of some of the junta’s post-coup crackdown measures – steps the leadership tout as reconciliation, but which critics describe as cosmetic measures to aid the rebranding effort.

Mr Min Aung Hlaing on April 17 commuted all death sentences and ordered the release of more than 4,300 prisoners in an amnesty to mark Myanmar’s new year – one of many public holidays when mass pardons are commonly made.

But Mr Win Myint’s pardon is perhaps the most significant climbdown so far.

‘Greatest joy’

Outside the barbed-wire boundary of Yangon’s Insein prison, AFP journalists saw detained award-winning film-maker Shin Daewe released in the amnesty on the morning of April 17.

She was given a life sentence in 2024 – later commuted to 15 years – for “complicity in terrorism”, according to Reporters Without Borders, which called her initial term the “harshest” post-coup sentencing of a journalist.

“Being reunited with my family will be the greatest joy. Everyone wants to see their family every single day,” said the documentary-maker.

“Even though I was fortunate, my unlucky friends were left behind in tears. Even as I return to my family, I am returning with tears in my eyes.”

Less than 14 per cent of those released in successive rounds of amnesties since the coup were political prisoners, the Institute for Strategy and Policy – Myanmar, a think-tank, said late in 2025.

Other groups of families waited in the sweltering heat, hoping their relatives were among those freed.

“My brother has been imprisoned for a political case,” said 38-year-old Aung Htet Naing, who was prepared for disappointment.

“We cannot expect much because he wasn’t included in previous pardons.”

More than 30,000 people have been detained for political reasons since the coup, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners.

Under military rule, the junta resumed executions that had not taken place for decades, targeting dissidents opposed to the 2021 coup, rights groups said.

By 2022, more than 130 people had been sentenced to death, according to the United Nations.

The order on April 17 by Mr Min Aung Hlaing commuted those sentenced to death to serve life in prison instead.

Mr Min Aung Hlaing swept aside the elected government of Mr Win Myint and Ms Suu Kyi five years ago, making allegations it had taken power by means of massive voter fraud in polls the previous year.

Election monitors said there was no evidence of that and the military – which has ruled Myanmar for most of its history – wrestled back power as it grew anxious about its waning influence after her landslide victory.

The coup triggered an ongoing civil war, pitching pro-democracy guerrillas and long-active ethnic minority armies against the military.

A junta-organised election concluded in January, reversing the result of the 2020 poll by delivering a walkover win for pro-military parties.

Ms Suu Kyi’s NLD party was dissolved and barred from running, while protest or criticism of the poll was made a prisonable offence and voting did not take place in rebel-held areas.

Lawmakers installed in the election voted overwhelmingly for Mr Min Aung Hlaing to serve as their president, and he was sworn into office to start his five-year term last week. AFP, Reuters