Lawyers for two Reuters reporters filed an appeal on Monday against the seven-year sentences they were handed by a Myanmar court for violating the colonial-era Official Secrets Act, in a case that observers say the civilian-led government has backpedaled on press freedom.
A court in Yangon found Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo guilty in September of possessing classified government documents while reporting on the extrajudicial killing of 10 Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine state’s Inn Din village during a brutal military crackdown in 2017 — an act to which the Myanmar military later admitted. More than 720,000 Rohingya fled the violence as soldiers murdered, tortured, raped, and burned their way through villages.
The verdict has drawn widespread criticism from press freedom and human rights groups, which contend that the pair were framed by police officials and convicted on bogus charges.
Thant Zaw Aung, an attorney representing the two reporters, told RFA’s Myanmar Service that he is hopeful about a good outcome after the High Court reviews the trial court’s decision and considers the case’s flaws.
That process will likely take months as Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, who were arrested in December 2017, continue to serve their sentences in Insein Prison on the outskirts of Yangon.