Myanmar court sentences journalist from US to 11 years
BANGKOK — A court in military-ruled Myanmar on Friday sentenced U.S. journalist Danny Fenster to 11 years in prison with hard labor, the maximum penalty under three charges, despite calls by the United States and rights groups for his release.
It was the harshest punishment yet among the seven journalists known to have been convicted since the military ousted the elected government of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi in February.
Fenster, the managing editor of the online magazine Frontier Myanmar, still faces additional terrorism and treason charges under which he could receive up to life in prison.
The court found him guilty on Friday of spreading false or inflammatory information, contacting illegal organizations and violating visa regulations, lawyer Than Zaw Aung said.
Fenster wept after hearing the sentence and has not yet decided whether to appeal, the lawyer said.
The harsh penalty is the ruling military’s latest rebuff of calls from around the world for a peaceful end to Myanmar’s political crisis.
U.S. State Department spokesperson Ned Price in a statement called Fenster’s sentencing “an unjust conviction of an innocent person.”
Price added: “The United States condemns this decision. We are closely monitoring Danny’s situation and will continue to work for his immediate release. We will do so until Danny returns home safely to his family.”
U.N. human rights chief Michelle Bachelet said Fenster’s conviction and harsh sentence “is emblematic of the wider plight of journalists in Myanmar who have been facing constant repression since the Feb. 1 military coup.”
According to Bachelet, at least 126 journalists, media officials or publishers have been detained by the military since the military seized power and 47 remain in detention, including 20 charged with crimes.
Nine media outlets have had their licenses revoked, 20 others have had to suspend operations, and dozens of journalists remain in hiding due to outstanding arrest warrants, she said.
“Journalists have been under attack since Feb. 1, with the military leadership clearly attempting to suppress their attempts to report on the serious human rights violations being perpetrated across Myanmar as well as the extent of opposition to the regime,” Bachelet said. “Myanmar has quickly reverted to an environment of information control, censorship and propaganda seen under military regimes in the past.”
Rep. Gosar resolution: House Democrats on Friday introduced a resolution to censure Arizona Republican Rep. Paul Gosar — a penalty that would amount to the chamber publicly shaming Gosar — for posting an animated video of him killing Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and attacking President Joe Biden with swords.
If the resolution is adopted in the House by the required simple majority, Gosar would be forced to stand in the well of the chamber while Speaker Nancy Pelosi reads the resolution. That is the totality of discipline that would accompany this censure effort.
A censure resolution is a privileged question with precedence over all questions — aside from motions
International Hot Air Balloon Festival: to adjourn — and can be called up by the sponsor, Rep. Jackie Speier, D-Calif., in this instance, without having to go through the Ethics Committee. The measure has 60 Democrats signed onto it.
Alaska Sen. reelection: Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska announced Friday that she will run for reelection in 2022, setting up a race against a primary challenger endorsed by former President Donald Trump.
Playing up her centrist bona fides, Murkowski said in a campaign video that she would work across party lines to help Alaska and “stand up to any politician or special interest that threatens our way of life.”
Trump has vowed revenge against Murkowski and other Republican lawmakers who supported his impeachment over the Jan. 6 insurrection.
Murkowski is the only Republican senator who voted to convict Trump at his impeachment trial to face reelection next year. The race will be closely watched nationally as an indicator of Trump’s lasting influence with GOP voters after his 2020 election defeat.
Qatar to represent US: The Gulf nation of Qatar has agreed to represent the United States in Taliban-run Afghanistan following the closure of the American Embassy in Kabul and withdrawal of all U.S. forces from the country in late August.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken and his Qatari counterpart, Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani, announced Friday that Qatar will serve as the U.S. “protecting power” in Afghanistan.
Blinken, meanwhile, said the U.S. has offered the opportunity to leave Afghanistan to all American citizens it has identified as remaining in the country who wish to depart and have appropriate travel documents.
The protecting power agreement means Qatar will set up a U.S. “interests section” within its own embassy in Kabul to handle consular services for American citizens in Afghanistan, deal with routine official communications between Washington and the Taliban government, and assume responsibility for the protection of nowvacated U.S. diplomatic facilities there.
Ethopia, Tigray crisis: The United States on Friday imposed economic sanctions on the military and ruling party of Eritrea over their role in neighboring Ethiopia’s brutal yearlong war, and it warned it would sanction Ethiopia’s government and rival Tigray forces if there is no “meaningful progress” toward a ceasefire and talks.
A Treasury Department statement cited the “continued role” the Eritreans play in the war that has killed thousands and displaced millions. Ethiopia’s government allowed Eritrean soldiers to enter Ethiopia’s Tigray region, where witnesses have accused them of some of the war’s worst abuses, but then denied the soldiers were there for months.
The U.S. statement noted “numerous reports of looting, sexual assault, killing civilians, and blocking humanitarian aid” by Eritrean forces.
Plane crash: A man who traveled to space with William Shatner last month was killed along with another person when the small plane they were in crashed in a wooded area of northern New Jersey, according to state police.
The one-time space tourist Glen M. de Vries, 49, of New York City, and Thomas P. Fischer, 54, of Hopatcong, were aboard the singleengine Cessna 172 that went down Thursday.
De Vries was an instrument-rated private pilot, and Fischer owned a flight school. Authorities have not said who was piloting the small plane.
The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating.