Bangkok (AP) — A military-controlled Myanmar court sentenced US journalist Danny Fenster to 11 years in prison for hard labor on Friday, despite a call for release by the US and rights groups.
This is the toughest punishment to date of seven journalists known to have been convicted since the military expelled the elected government of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi in February. was.
Fenster, editor-in-chief of the online magazine Frontier Myanmar, is still facing additional terrorism and treason that could lead to life imprisonment.
Attorney Than Zaw Aung said the court found him guilty of disseminating false or inflammatory information, contacting illegal organizations and violating visa rules on Friday.
Mr Fenster cried when he heard the ruling, and the lawyer said it was not yet decided whether to appeal.
Severe penalties are the refusal of recent calls by ruling party forces from around the world for a peaceful end to Myanmar’s political crisis. The government has refused to work with a mission appointed by the Southeast Asian government to mediate the solution and has not succumbed to the sanctions imposed by the United States and several other Western nations.
“It’s clear that Danny is a model, and it shows that the junta doesn’t care what the international community thinks. They do what they want. This is basically an example of how they are not accountable to the international community, “said Manny Maung, a Myanmar researcher at Human Rights Watch, a New York-based group. ..
The military takeover was opposed by widespread peaceful protests that were crushed by deadly forces. According to the Political Prisoners Support Association, security forces killed more than 1,200 civilians and arrested about 10,000. Later, armed resistance spread, and UN experts and other observers fear that the early rebellion could lead to a civil war.
Fenster was detained at Yangon International Airport on May 24 as he was about to board a plane to the Detroit region of the United States to meet his family.
The military-established government has cracked down on press freedom, shutting down virtually all important media outlets, arresting about 100 journalists, of whom about 30 remain in prison. Of the seven known to have been convicted, six were Myanmar citizens and four were released on October 21 with a pardon.
Some closed media continue to operate without a license and publish online when staff dodge arrests.
At least three other foreign journalists from Japan, the United States and Poland were detained. American Nathan Maung said he was tortured while in custody.
A hearing on the first three accusations against Fenster took place in a court in the infamous Insein Prison in Yangon, where he was imprisoned. They are not open to the press or the general public, and the proceedings are explained by Fenster’s lawyer.
Despite testimony from more than a dozen prosecution witnesses, it was not clear exactly what Fenster was alleged to have done, and he appeared to have been found guilty by the association.
Many of the prosecution’s cases appeared to depend on his employment at another online news site, MyanmarNow, which was ordered to shut down this year. However, Fenster quit his job in Myanmar Now last July and joined Frontier Myanmar the following month.
Prosecution witnesses testified that a letter from the Ministry of Information was informed that Fenster was informed that records show that he continues to be employed in Myanmar Now this year.
Both Myanmar Now and Frontier Myanmar have issued official statements that Fenster left a pre-last year publication, his lawyer said attorneys’ testimony and income tax receipts, and he was Frontier Myanmar. He said he had proved that he was working in.
Zaw Aung said he could not create a government official to testify and the judge only considered the letter of the Ministry of Information.
“Therefore, according to this letter, Danny is now responsible for Myanmar, and the judge said that was the reason Danny was sentenced,” the lawyer said.
Mr Fenster said Myanmar’s editor-in-chief had forgotten to notify the Ministry of Information of last year’s resignation.
The US government, human rights groups, the Freedom of the Press, and Fenster’s family have urged the release of a 37-year-old journalist.
Sean Crispin, Southeast Asia representative of the Committee to Protect Journalists based in New York, said:
“I’m overwhelmed by the news of the decision of my member journalist Danny Fenster,” said Andy Levin, a Democrat in the suburbs of Detroit, a member of the Michigan state legislature.
“Despite Danny’s lawyers showing evidence of removing these accusations and misconduct, the ruling would go down in the absence of justice cinchillas,” he said in a statement.
Myanmar court sentenced U.S. journalists to 11 years in hard labor
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