The Burmese High Court yesterday rejected the appeal of two Reuters reporters sentenced to seven years in jail on charges of breaching the Burmese Official Secrets Act, saying that the defense had not provided sufficient evidence to show they were innocent.
Wa Lone, 32, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 28, were in September last year convicted by a lower court in a landmark case that has raised questions about Myanmar’s progress toward democracy and sparked an outcry from diplomats and human rights advocates.
“It was a suitable punishment,” High Court Judge Aung Naing said.
Photo: Reuters
The defense has the option of making a further appeal to the nation’s Supreme Court.
“Today’s ruling is yet another injustice among many inflicted upon Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo. They remain behind bars for one reason: Those in power sought to silence the truth,” Reuters editor-in-chief Stephen Adler said in a statement.
“Reporting is not a crime and until Myanmar rights this terrible wrong, the press in Myanmar is not free and Myanmar’s commitment to rule of law and democracy remains in doubt,” he added.
In their appeal arguments made last month, defense lawyers cited evidence of a police setup and lack of proof of a crime.
They told the appeals court that the lower court had wrongly placed the burden of proof on the defendants.
The defense also said that prosecutors had failed to prove the reporters gathered and collected secret information, sent information to an enemy of Myanmar or intended to harm national security.
Khine Khine Soe, a legal officer representing the government, told the appeal hearing that the evidence showed that the reporters had collected and kept confidential documents with an intent to harm national security and interests.
The judge yesterday said “it was not acceptable” to say that the defendants had acted according to journalistic ethics.
“It cannot be said that it was a setup,” he said.
Standing outside the court building in Yangon where the judgement was pronounced, EU Ambassador to Myanmar Kristian Schmidt said that the ruling was a “miscarriage of justice and it gives us great concern for the independence of the justice system of Myanmar.”
Defense lawyer Than Zaw Aung, speaking after the ruling, said that his team would discuss the option of a Supreme Court appeal with the reporters.
Before their arrest, the reporters had been working on an investigation into the killing of 10 Rohingya Muslim men and boys by security forces and Buddhist civilians in Rakhine State during an army crackdown that began in August 2017.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique