Myanmar court rejects final appeal by jailed Reuters journalists

Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo were accused of breaking Official Secrets Act for reporting on Rohingya crisis

Hannah Ellis-Petersen South-east Asia correspondent
Tue 23 Apr 2019 06.01 BST First published on Tue 23 Apr 2019 04.21 BST

The highest court of Myanmar has denied the final appeal of the two Reuters journalists who were imprisoned for their reporting on the ethnic cleansing of Rohingya Muslims, upholding the seven-year prison sentence and dashing the last hope that justice would be served.

The swift ruling, by Myanmar’s highest court, was a devastating blow to Wa Lone, 33, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 29, who were arrested in December 2017 and accused of breaking a colonial-era Official Secrets Act, and have now been in jail for 16 months.

They had already lost a previous appeal at the Yangon court earlier this year.

On Tuesday morning, Supreme Court Justice Soe Naing announced the ruling to the court in a brief statement that went into no detail about why the appeal was rejected. “The Supreme Court upholds the conviction made by the previous court,” he said. As a result, the pair will have to serve out the original seven year sentence handed to them in September.

In a statement, Reuters Chief Counsel Gail Gove said: “Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo did not commit any crime, nor was there any proof that they did. Instead, they were victims of a police set-up to silence their truthful reporting. We will continue to do all we can to free them as soon as possible.”

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