‘Verdict on journalists’ appeal out on Friday’

TWO Myanmar Reuters journalists ja iled for reporting on t he Rohi ng ya cr isis shou ld f i nd out on Fr iday i f t hei r appea l aga i nst t hei r sevenyea r sentence is successf ul, t heir law yer said.

Wa Lone, 32, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 28, were arrested in December 2017 and later sentenced under the Official Secrets Act for possession of classified documents.

The pair’s defence argued that they were entrapped in a police sting after investigating the massacre of 10 Rohingya Muslim men during the army’s brutal crackdown on the persecuted community.

Outrage at t he verdict echoed a rou nd t he world a f ter what was widely regarded as a sham tria l, held as punishment for t heir work.

The pair’s lawyers lodged their appeal in late December and on Tuesday said the decision would be handed down on Friday.

“The decision for the Reuters appeal case will be given at 1pm at the High Court on January 11,” lawyer Than Zaw Aung said on Tuesday.

The court could choose to uphold their seven-year sentence, reduce the jail term or even set them free.

“We are hoping for the best and for their freedom,” Than Zaw Aung said, adding it was unclear if the pair would be able to walk free on the same day, if t he judge r uled in t heir favour.

Domestically the reporters have garnered little sympathy, with many buying the nationalist line that they were simply traitors for reporting on the Rohingya crisis.

A violent military campaign in 2017 forced more than 720,000 Rohingya over the border into Bangladesh with refugees bringing with them consistent accounts of murder, rape, torture and arson.

UN investigators have called for the prosecution of top generals for genocide and accused Aung San Suu Kyi’s civilian government of complicity.

Myanmar vehemently rejects nearly all allegations, legitimising the crackdown as a necessar y defence against Rohingya militants.

Rights groups say the British colonial-era state secrets law has been used in order to muzzle the media’s reporting on the crisis.

Outside the country the two men have been hailed as heroes and feted with awards presented in their absence.

Wa Lone and Kyaw SoeOo were even jointly named Time Magazine’s Person of the Year 2018, a longside ot her persecuted a nd sla i n jou r na l ists.