August 2, 2023: On Tuesday, Aung San Suu Kyi’s prison term decreased after being pardoned by Myanmar’s military-led administration. Still, state media and scholarly sources said she would remain under house arrest.

The pardons represent six years will be removed from Suu Kyi’s 33-year jail term, junta spokesperson Zaw Min Tun told the Eleven Media Group, adding that it was part of an amnesty under which more than 7,000 prisoners were freed across the strife-torn country.

Myanmar has been in the throes of bloody turmoil since early 2021 when the military overthrew Suu Kyi’s elected government and unleashed a crackdown on opponents of military rule that saw thousands jailed or killed.

On Monday, the junta postponed an election promised by August this year and extended a state of emergency for another six months, which critics say would prolong the crisis.

The Nobel Laureate, detained during the coup, was moved from prison to house arrest in the capital, Naypyitaw. She denies all the charges she was convicted of, going from incitement and election fraud to corruption, and has been appealing against them.

The junta spokesperson was quoted as saying the military’s State Administration Council also reduced by four years the jail term of former president Win Myint, who was arrested at the same time as Suu Kyi.

An informed head said Suu Kyi and Win Myint would remain in detention.

“She won’t be free from house arrest,” said the head, who refused to be identified because of the issue’s sensitivity.

The source said the convictions for which she was acquitted were minor, including breaching a natural disaster mitigation law in violating COVID-19 rules during election campaigning.

Suu Kyi, the daughter of Myanmar’s independence hero, was initially put under house acquired in 1989 after massive protests against decades of military rule.

She was given the Nobel Peace Prize for campaigning for democracy but was only eventually freed from house arrest in 2010. She cleaned a 2015 election as part of tentative military reforms, and her party won the next election in November 2020.