Myanmar - amnesty

Suu Kyi ruling next month, thousands freed in amnesty

Article published on the 2009-09-18 Latest update 2009-09-18 16:03 TU

Demonstrators call for Aung San Suu Kyi's release in Thailand
(Photo: Reuters)

A Myanmar court will rule on 2 October on whether opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi will be freed from house arrest. Closing arguments on her appeal were heard Friday, as 7,000 other prisoners, both political and common law, were freed in an amnesty.

Lawyers for both sides gave their final arguments on Suu Kyi's appeal at the Yangon divisional court Friday and the judges said they would leave their decision until the beginning of next month.

Suu Kyi was not allowed to attend the hearing.

She is under house arrest following the reduction of a three years' hard labour sentence to 18 months house arrest, following an alleged breach of the terms of her previous confinement. 

Earlier Friday more than 7,000 prisoners were freed in amnesty, which state television said was granted for good behaviour.

Opposition activists and journalists were among those released.

They included reporters Eint Khan Oo and Kyaw Kyaw Thant, both jailed for inciting hatred of the government after theey took a group of survivors of the 2008 Cyclone Nargis to UN offices in Yangon.

Also freed was Nine Nine, a member of Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) who was sentenced to 21 years in jail in 2000. He declared that he will rejoin the nparty "because I have always be an NLD member".

A Human Rights Watch report released Wednesday claimed that the number of political prisoners in Myanmar has doubled to 2,200 in the two years, since a crackdown on protests by Buddhist monks.