Relatives gather around a bus carrying released prisoners out of Insein prison during an annual amnesty to mark Myanmar's independence day in Yangon on January 4, 2026. SAI AUNG MAIN / AFP
Hundreds of prisoners walked free in Myanmar on Sunday after the junta announced annual independence day pardons, just a week after the start of an election that international monitors have denounced as a sham.
A dozen buses full of released prisoners exited Yangon's Insein prison on Sunday morning, with some waving to crowds of well-wishers, AFP journalists saw. Family members outside the prison held up signs with the names of their jailed loved ones, unsure if they would be among those freed.
In total, junta chief Min Aung Hlaing pardoned 6,134 imprisoned Myanmar nationals, the National Defence and Security Council said, adding 52 foreign prisoners would also be released and deported. The yearly prisoner amnesty that the junta said was "on humanitarian and compassionate grounds" was announced as the country marks 78 years of independence from British colonial rule.
The military grabbed power in a 2021 coup that triggered civil war, pitting pro-democracy rebels against junta forces, with thousands of activists arrested since.
