Myanmar judges can be tried by a Myanmar court

A court in Myanmar formally charged two Reuters journalists accused of unlawfully detaining official information, which allowed them to continue their trial.

The trial of Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo lasted several months to determine whether there was sufficient evidence to support the prosecution, which the journalists denied.

The two reporters were accused Monday of breaking the law on official secrets, a law dating from the British colonial era, and sentenced to 14 years. in prison. They were arrested in December and have been detained since then because the court rejected their bail application

They were apparently targeted by the authorities because their work involved the brutal crackdown by security forces against minority Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine State in Myanmar. About 700,000 Rohingyas have fled to neighboring Bangladesh since the crackdown began last August.

The two journalists worked on an investigation into the killing of 10 Rohingya villagers in the village of Din Inn, for which the government sentenced years of imprisonment with hard labor.

The reporters argued that they were framed by the police, a claim that was supported by the testimony of a whistleblower in the police department, Moe Yan Naing. After giving his surprise testimony, he was imprisoned for violating the law on police discipline and his family was forced to leave his police unit

"We did not commit any crime," said Wa Lone to reporters. He said that his response to the judge's decision was: "We will never give in. Today's court decision does not mean that we are guilty, we still have the right to defense. "

Reuters urged the authorities to release both.

"We are deeply disappointed that the court refused to put an end to this lengthy and baseless procedure against Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, and that these Reuters journalists were doing their work in an independent and impartial manner, and it was not necessary. there are no facts or evidence to suggest that they did something wrong or broke a law, "Stephen J. Adler, Reuters chairman and editor-in-chief The decision taken today is seriously putting into doubts Myanmar's commitment to freedom of the press and the rule of law

Myanmar's actions against the Rohingyas have been the subject of harsh criticism international level, including that he carried out ethnic cleansing.

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