LEAD: Myanmar commutes sentences, releases seven political prisoners

Jan 3, 2012, 8:50 GMT

Yangon - Myanmar released at least seven political prisoners on Tuesday under a presidential decision to commute sentences for inmates, opposition sources said.

Ahead of Wednesday's Independence Day, President Thein Sein commuted death sentences to life in prison, reduced to 30 years any jail sentence over that amount, reduced any sentences between 20 and 30 years to 20 years, and took a quarter off the term of any sentences under 20 years.

Several inmates were released as a result of the term reductions, including seven 'prisoners of conscience,' according to officials of the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD).

But the NLD pointed out that many prominent political prisoners remain in jail.

'This is just a commuting of sentences, not an amnesty,' NLD spokesman Nyan Win said. 'So political activists such as Min Ko Naing, Ko Ko Gyi, who have been sentenced to 65 years in jail, got their sentences commuted to 30 years in prison instead,' he added.

The two are leaders of the 88 Students movement that led protests joined by Buddhist monks in 2007, resulting in an army crackdown that left dozens dead or missing.

The NLD estimated that there are 591 political prisoners still in jail. The government on October 12 released 7,500 convicts, including at least 240 known political prisoners.

About 2,100 people were jailed for political reasons by the junta that ruled between 1988 and 2010, according to the Association for Political Prisoners Burma, a group of Myanmar exiles.

The international community has demanded they all be released in return for normalizing relations with the government that took office after the November 7, 2010 elections.

The NLD has said it will contest a by-election on April 1, officially re-entering mainstream politics.