Myanmar's Aung San Suu Kyi pardoned for several offences

Myanmar civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been in detention since she was ousted in a 2021 military coup, has been pardoned in a military government amnesty of more than 7,000 prisoners to mark Buddhist Lent.

"Six years imprisonment will be reduced," junta spokesman Zaw Min Tun told reporters on Tuesday, explaining that the reduction related to only five of the 19 criminal cases against the 78-year-old democracy icon.

The Nobel Laureate, who last week moved from prison to house arrest in the capital, Naypyitaw, has been in detention since the military seized power in a coup in early 2021.

Earlier on Tuesday, Myanmar Radio and Television reported the pardons by the Chairman of State Administration Council but an informed source said Suu Kyi would remain in detention.

"She won't be free from house arrest," said the source who declined to be identified due to the sensitivity of the issue.

Suu Kyi, 78, the daughter of Myanmar's independence hero, was first put under house arrest in 1989 after huge protests against decades of military rule.

In 1991, she won the Nobel Peace Prize for campaigning for democracy but was only fully released from house arrest in 2010. She swept a 2015 election, held as part of tentative military reforms that were brought to a halt by the 2021 coup.

She is appealing the convictions for the various offences ranging from incitement and election fraud to corruption. She denied all of the charges.