Myanmar frees more than 4,500 prisoners in traditional new year amnesty

More than 4,500 prisoners in Myanmar have been granted amnesty, and others have had their sentences reduced under a pardon order by President Min Aung Hlaing to mark the traditional new year, state-run media reported on Friday (April 17, 2026).

The identities of those being released were not immediately available. Relatives and friends of prisoners waited outside the main gate at Insein Prison, in the northern outskirts of Yangon, since morning.

There was no sign that former leader Aung San Suu Kyi would be freed or if the pardon would include the thousands of political detainees imprisoned for opposing military rule.