20th August, 2018
The judge in the trial of two Reuters reporters jailed in Myanmar on accusations of obtaining secret state documents, on Monday fixed Aug. 27, to deliver judgment in a case that is seen as a test of press freedom in the fledgling democracy.
The judge set the date after closing arguments had been delivered.
The court in Yangon has been holding hearings since January to decide whether, Wa Lone, 31, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 28, are guilty of breaching the colonial-era Official Secrets Act, which carries a maximum sentence of 14 years in prison.
The two Myanmar journalists working for Reuters were arrested in the commercial hub of Yangon in December with documents allegedly pertaining to Rakhine state, where nearly 700,000 Rohingya Muslims fled a brutal army crackdown in 2017.
They had been investigating the mass killing of 10 Rohingya men prior to detainment.
During the trial, defence lawyers urged the judge to throw out the case, claiming the reporters were handed the documents by police moments before their arrests and arguing the prosecution had failed to provide sufficient evidence to support the charges.
Defence lawyer Khin Zaw asked the judge to rule with “leniency” in his final comments on Monday, citing the precedent of several other high profile cases under the colonial-era Official Secrets Act.
Soe-Oo, 28, and Lone, 32, face up to 14 years imprisonment if found guilty of violating Myanmar’s colonial-era Official Secrets Act.