Myanmar jails US journalist for 11 years
YANGON: A Myanmar junta court yesterday sentenced an American journalist to 11 years in prison on charges of unlawful association, incitement against the military and breaching visa rules, his employer and lawyer said.
The military has squeezed the press since taking power in a February coup, arresting dozens of journalists critical of its crackdown on dissent, which has killed over 1,200 people according to a local monitoring group.
Danny Fenster, who had been working for local outlet Frontier Myanmar for around a year, was arrested in May as he tried to leave the country to see his family.
He was sentenced to 11 years for incitement, unlawful association and breaching visa rules, his lawyer Than Zaw Aung told AFP.
His client had not decided whether he would appeal, he added.
Fenster, who has been held in Yangon’s Insein prison since he was detained, also faces charges of sedition and terrorism, which could see him jailed for life.
The sentencing was based on evidence from the junta appointed information ministry that showed at the time of his arrest Fenster had been working at local outlet, Myanmar Now, which had its licence revoked shortly after the coup, Than Zaw Aung said.
Fenster’s team were barred from cross-examining the ministry’s permanent secretary, he said, and the court did not consider tax evidence that Fenster had already left the outlet and was working for Frontier.
Crisis Group Myanmar senior advisor Richard Horsey described the sentence as ‘outrageous’.
“It sends a message not only to international journalists... but also Myanmar journalists that reporting factually on the situation is liable to get them many many years in prison,” he told AFP.
He noted US diplomats were working to get him released.