The verdict in Myanmar’s prosecution of two Reuters reporters accused of breaching the Official Secrets Act was yesterday postponed until Monday next week, because the judge overseeing the case is sick, a court official said.
Scores of reporters and diplomats had gathered at the Yangon court to hear the verdict on journalists Wa Lone, 32, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 28, the culmination of eight months of hearings in a landmark case that has come to be seen as a test of progress toward democracy in the Southeast Asian country.
“We are disappointed not to have received the judge’s decision today,” Reuters said in a statement.
Photo: Reuters
“Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo have already spent more than eight months in prison based on allegations of a crime they did not commit. We look forward to the receiving the verdict next week, when we very much hope that they will be acquitted and reunited with their families,” it said.
Government spokesman Zaw Htay could not be immediately reached for comment on the postponement of the verdict.
The climax of the case comes amid building pressure on the administration of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi over a security crackdown in the western state of Rakhine that was sparked by militant attacks in August last year.
Later yesterday, a UN mandated fact-finding mission was to release a report on the crackdown, which triggered the exodus of more than 700,000 stateless Muslim Rohingya, according to UN agencies.
Most are now living in refugee camps in neighboring Bangladesh.
The UN Security Council is to hold a briefing on Myanmar in New York City today.
Yesterday’s court proceedings lasted just a few minutes, long enough for a judge standing in for Judge Ye Lwin, who has overseen the case against the Reuters journalists, to announce that a ruling would be made next week.
“The judge is in poor health, so I am here to announce that the verdict is postponed to the third,” Judge Khin Maung Maung said.
Defense lawyer Khin Maung Zaw told reporters that the stand-in judge had said the verdict was ready, but it had to be pronounced by the judge assigned to the case.
Wa Lone smiled broadly and made a thumbs-up sign with his hands in cuffs as he walked into the court, with Kyaw Soe Oo just behind him.
“We are not afraid or shaken. The truth is on our side. Whatever the situation is, we will not be shaken. They cannot make us weak,” Wa Lone told reporters after the brief hearing.
A number of journalists who came to cover the verdict wore T-shirts that read “Free Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo” and “Journalism is not a crime.”
The Reuters reporters are accused of breaching the colonial-era Official Secrets Act, which carries a maximum sentence of 14 years in prison, by collecting documents relating to the nation’s security forces.
They told the court during their trial that two police officials handed them papers at a north Yangon restaurant moments before other officers arrested them in December last year.
One police witness testified the restaurant meeting was a set-up to entrap the journalists to block or punish them for their reporting of a mass killing of Rohingya and other abuses involving soldiers and police in Inn Din, a village in Rakhine.
‘CHILD PORNOGRAPHY’: The doll on Shein’s Web site measure about 80cm in height, and it was holding a teddy bear in a photo published by a daily newspaper France’s anti-fraud unit on Saturday said it had reported Asian e-commerce giant Shein (希音) for selling what it described as “sex dolls with a childlike appearance.” The French Directorate General for Competition, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Control (DGCCRF) said in a statement that the “description and categorization” of the items on Shein’s Web site “make it difficult to doubt the child pornography nature of the content.” Shortly after the statement, Shein announced that the dolls in question had been withdrawn from its platform and that it had launched an internal inquiry. On its Web site, Le Parisien daily published a
China’s Shenzhou-20 crewed spacecraft has delayed its return mission to Earth after the vessel was possibly hit by tiny bits of space debris, the country’s human spaceflight agency said yesterday, an unusual situation that could disrupt the operation of the country’s space station Tiangong. An impact analysis and risk assessment are underway, the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) said in a statement, without providing a new schedule for the return mission, which was originally set to land in northern China yesterday. The delay highlights the danger to space travel posed by increasing amounts of debris, such as discarded launch vehicles or vessel
RUBBER STAMP? The latest legislative session was the most productive in the number of bills passed, but critics attributed it to a lack of dissenting voices On their last day at work, Hong Kong’s lawmakers — the first batch chosen under Beijing’s mantra of “patriots administering Hong Kong” — posed for group pictures, celebrating a job well done after four years of opposition-free politics. However, despite their smiles, about one-third of the Legislative Council will not seek another term in next month’s election, with the self-described non-establishment figure Tik Chi-yuen (狄志遠) being among those bowing out. “It used to be that [the legislature] had the benefit of free expression... Now it is more uniform. There are multiple voices, but they are not diverse enough,” Tik said, comparing it
North Korea yesterday fired a ballistic missile, Seoul’s military said, about a week after US President Donald Trump approved South Korea’s plan to build a nuclear-powered submarine. Analysts have said Seoul’s plan to construct one of the nuclear-driven vessels would likely draw an aggressive response from Pyongyang. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said North Korea fired an unidentified ballistic missile toward the East Sea, referring to the body of water also known as the Sea of Japan. The missile landed in the sea outside Japan’s economic waters and no damage or injuries had been reported, Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said. The missile
RSS