Ousted Myanmar leaders Aung San Suu Kyi and Win Myint have received partial pardons from the country’s military chief.

The military chief reduced their sentences from four to two years, state media announced.

Both had initially been sentenced to four years in prison on Monday for incitement and violating COVID-19 restrictions during last year’s election campaign. 

The junta’s mouthpiece news outlet also said they would remain under house arrest.

Earlier, a special court in Myanmar’s capital sentenced Ms Suu Kyi to four years in prison on Monday after finding her guilty of incitement and violating coronavirus restrictions.

The sentencing was the first in a series of cases in which the 76-year-old Nobel laureate was being prosecuted since the army seized power on February 1, preventing her National League for Democracy party from starting a second five-year term in office.

In her long struggle for democracy, she had served 15 years of house arrest starting in 1989.

The incitement case involved statements posted on her party’s Facebook page after she and other party leaders had already been detained by the military. 

The coronavirus charge involved a campaign appearance ahead of elections in November 2020,  which her party overwhelmingly won.

(dpa/NAN)