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Myanmar Sentences Reuters Journalists to 7 Years in Prison Myanmar Sentences Reuters Journalists to 7 Years in Prison
(about 1 hour later)
BANGKOK — Two Reuters reporters who documented a massacre of Rohingya Muslim villagers in Myanmar were found guilty Monday of possessing secret documents and sentenced to seven years in prison. BANGKOK — The two reporters met the police corporal at his insistence, joining him at a restaurant in Yangon. Confused when the conversation did not live up to the policeman’s initial urgency, the two got up to leave after the meal ended, only to have him hand off two rolled-up pieces of paper with no explanation.
The judge in the case, U Ye Lwin, said he based his verdict in part on documents found on the cellphones of the two reporters, U Wa Lone and U Kyaw Soe Oo, after they were arrested. The journalists, U Wa Lone and U Kyaw Soe Oo, reporters for Reuters, barely made it out of the restaurant before they were arrested, the papers confiscated before they had any chance to look at them, they testified.
“It cannot be said that they were doing normal journalistic work,” the judge said. “And the top secret documents they were holding can be useful to the enemies of the country or the ones who oppose the country.” But on Monday, those papers — despite testimony in April by another police official that higher-ups had ordered them to be planted on the reporters — were at the heart of a judge’s rationale in convicting and sentencing the two journalists to 7 years in prison for violating Myanmar’s colonial-era Official Secrets Act.
Western governments and rights groups around the world had urged Myanmar to free the journalists as a sign of commitment to the establishment of democracy and freedom of expression. Their case, which has stretched over almost nine months of court hearings, has become the most notable blow in Myanmar’s intensified crackdown on the press, as officials seek to deny or obscure atrocities against the country’s Rohingya Muslim minority. A United Nations mission recently called for Myanmar military leaders to be tried for genocide against the Rohingya.
The courtroom was packed with journalists and foreign diplomats, including the United States ambassador to Myanmar, Scot Marciel, who have closely monitored the case. The reporters’ defenders, including news organizations and rights groups from around the world, say their only crime was committing journalism, documenting the mass killings and ethnic cleansing by soldiers and Buddhist mobs in Rakhine State that began in August last year.
Their lawyers argued that all the documents cited by the judge in convicting and sentencing Mr. Wa Lone and Mr. Kyaw Soe Oo – including the rolled-up papers, as well as files and phone numbers captured from their cellphones and homes — were already public at the time of their arrest, and that having phone numbers was part of their job.
The judge, U Ye Lwin, ruled that the journalists intended to harm the country by sharing its secrets.
“It cannot be said that they were doing normal journalistic work,” he said in announcing the verdict. “And the top-secret documents they were holding can be useful to the enemies of the country or the ones who oppose the country.”
The judge’s verdict and harsh sentence outraged rights activists and dealt another blow to the legacy of Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel Peace laureate who heads the civilian government, as a former symbol of the fight for democracy and human rights.
It was her government that pursued the charges against the two journalists, despite her own history of serving 15 years under house arrest at the hands of an earlier military government in Myanmar, also known as Burma.
“It’s deeply troubling for everybody who has struggled so hard here for media freedom,” said Scot Marciel, the United States ambassador to Myanmar, who attended the court hearing.
Mr. Wa Lone, 32, and Mr. Kyaw Soe Oo, 28, were targeted by the police while they were investigating a massacre of 10 Rohingya Muslim villagers in Rakhine State.
The massacre took place a year ago, during a broader wave of arson, rape and killing by soldiers that drove more than 700,000 Rohingya into neighboring Bangladesh, in what has been widely condemned as ethnic cleansing. The Rohingya have lived in Myanmar for generations, but many Burmese consider them to be illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.
The two journalists found evidence that members of the military and Buddhist civilians killed 10 Rohingya males in the village of Inn Din. Their report, with photographs of the victims tied up and kneeling before their executions, and evidence of the mass grave where they were buried, was published after the reporters’ arrest.
Despite pressure from the international community, including recent sanctions by the United States against some of Myanmar’s top generals, Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi has refused to criticize the military campaign against the Rohingya.
Western governments, human rights groups and press freedom organizations around the world had urged Myanmar to free the Reuters journalists as a sign of commitment to the establishment of democracy and freedom of expression.
On Monday, the small courtroom was packed with family members, journalists, rights advocates and foreign diplomats.
“The decision is very disappointing,” said one of the reporters’ lawyers, Khin Maung Zaw, after the hearing. “This is bad for the rule of law, bad for freedom of expression. This decision is against democracy.”“The decision is very disappointing,” said one of the reporters’ lawyers, Khin Maung Zaw, after the hearing. “This is bad for the rule of law, bad for freedom of expression. This decision is against democracy.”
The Reuters president and editor in chief, Stephen J. Adler, called the verdict an “injustice” and urged the Myanmar government to step in and free them. The Reuters president and editor in chief, Stephen J. Adler, called the verdict an “injustice” and urged Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi’s government to step in and free them.
“These two admirable reporters have already spent nearly nine months in prison on false charges designed to silence their reporting and intimidate the press,” he said. “Without any evidence of wrongdoing and in the face of compelling evidence of a police setup, today’s ruling condemns them to the continued loss of their freedom and condones the misconduct of security forces.”“These two admirable reporters have already spent nearly nine months in prison on false charges designed to silence their reporting and intimidate the press,” he said. “Without any evidence of wrongdoing and in the face of compelling evidence of a police setup, today’s ruling condemns them to the continued loss of their freedom and condones the misconduct of security forces.”
Mr. Wa Lone, 32, and Mr. Kyaw Soe Oo, 28, were arrested in mid-December after a police officer insisted on meeting them at a restaurant in Yangon and handed them some rolled-up papers. Mr. Wa Lone and Mr. Kyaw Soe Oo, who have repeatedly denounced the authorities’ actions, said after the hearing that they were disappointed by the verdict and the prison sentence, and insisted again that they had done nothing wrong.
The two journalists contended during the trial that the police entrapped them. They testified that they were arrested so quickly that they never had a chance to read the documents. At trial, the defense argued that it was a clear case of entrapment by the police, and that none of the prosecution’s 17 witnesses had produced evidence of a crime.
At the time, the two reporters were investigating the massacre of 10 Rohingya villagers in Rakhine State by members of the military and Buddhist civilians. Their report, including photographs of the 10 victims tied up and kneeling before their executions, was published after the reporters’ arrest.
The massacre occurred during violent attacks on Rohingya Muslims by Myanmar’s military and local Buddhist mobs that drove hundreds of thousands of refugees into neighboring Bangladesh in what has been widely condemned as ethnic cleansing.
“The decision makes me so upset,” Mr. Wa Lone said after the verdict was announced. “I didn’t do anything wrong.”
At trial, the defense argued that none of the prosecution’s 17 witnesses had produced evidence of a crime.
One prosecution witness who said he was present during the arrests admitted under cross-examination that he had written the location on his hand so he would not forget it while he was testifying.One prosecution witness who said he was present during the arrests admitted under cross-examination that he had written the location on his hand so he would not forget it while he was testifying.
Another officer admitted that he burned his notes of the arrest. Yet another police witness acknowledged that the information in the supposedly secret documents had been published in newspaper reports before their arrests. Another officer admitted that he burned his notes of the arrest. Yet another police witness acknowledged that the information in the supposedly secret documents had been published in newspaper reports before the arrests.
A police captain who told the court that the arrests were a setup was punished for his testimony with a year in prison. A police captain who told the court in April that the arrests had been a setup was punished for his testimony with a year in prison. “I am revealing the truth, because police of any rank must maintain their own integrity,” the captain, Moe Yan Naing told reporters after he testified. “It is true that they were set up.”
The captain, Moe Yan Naing, testified that a more senior officer had ordered a police corporal to plant the documents on Mr. Wa Lone. In his ruling on Monday, Judge Ye Lwin rejected the defense arguments and found that the journalists illegally possessed confidential documents. He said that the reporters had been consistently trying to obtain government secrets and share them, which could be useful to enemies of the state.
“I am revealing the truth, because police of any rank must maintain their own integrity,” Mr. Moe Yan Naing told reporters after he testified. “It is true that they were set up.”
He was later sentenced in secret to 12 months in prison for violating the police disciplinary code.
In his ruling, Judge Ye Lwin accepted the journalists’ argument that they had not read the documents that they were handed, but still found that they possessed the papers illegally.
He said he also based the guilty verdict on confidential letters and plans that were found on their locked phones.
The defense argued during trial that the information in those documents was already public before the two were arrested.
In addition, the judge said that phone numbers they possessed, such as the number of a contact with the rebel Arakan Army, was further evidence of their intention to undermine the government.In addition, the judge said that phone numbers they possessed, such as the number of a contact with the rebel Arakan Army, was further evidence of their intention to undermine the government.
The defense countered that having the telephone numbers of people from different perspectives was a normal part of a journalist’s job. For many journalists, finding secrets and making them public is the essence of the job.
The two reporters were charged under Myanmar’s colonial-era Official Secrets Act, and the case was prosecuted by the government of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate who spent 15 years under house arrest under the previous military government. “This decision is made politically, not because they did something wrong,” said Myint Kyaw, a member of the independent Myanmar Press Council. “This decision is a warning that no journalist can report freely about the Rakhine issue.”
She said in a June interview with the Japanese television network NHK that they “were arrested because they broke the Official Secret Act” but that it was up to the judicial system to decide whether they were guilty.
Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi has been widely criticized overseas for not speaking up against what some term a genocide of the Rohingya. She also had been urged by rights groups worldwide to release the two journalists.
Given her stand on the case so far, it is unclear whether she will respond to foreign pressure to overrule the verdict and free the two journalists.
Diplomats and rights advocates were outspoken in their criticism of the verdict.Diplomats and rights advocates were outspoken in their criticism of the verdict.
“It’s deeply troubling for everybody who has struggled so hard here for media freedom,” Mr. Marciel, the United States ambassador, said after the verdict.
Sean Bain, legal adviser in Yangon for the International Commission of Jurists, said the trial was “grossly unfair” and that punishing journalists for exposing human rights violations undermines the rule of law.Sean Bain, legal adviser in Yangon for the International Commission of Jurists, said the trial was “grossly unfair” and that punishing journalists for exposing human rights violations undermines the rule of law.
“The outrageous convictions of the Reuters journalists show Myanmar courts’ willingness to muzzle those reporting on military atrocities,” said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “These sentences mark a new low for press freedom and further backsliding on rights under Aung San Suu Kyi’s government. “The outrageous convictions of the Reuters journalists show Myanmar courts’ willingness to muzzle those reporting on military atrocities,” said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “These sentences mark a new low for press freedom and further backsliding on rights under Aung San Suu Kyi’s government.”