YANGON (REUTERS) - Myanmar prosecutors sought charges on Wednesday (Jan 10) against two Reuters reporters under the Official Secrets Act, which carries a maximum prison sentence of 14 years, the reporters’ lawyer said.
Wa Lone, 31, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 27, were detained on Dec 12 after they had been invited to meet police officers over dinner. Family members have said the two told them they were arrested almost immediately after being handed some documents by the officers they had gone to meet.
The two had worked on Reuters coverage of a crisis in the western state of Rakhine, where – according to UN estimates - about 655,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled from a fierce military crackdown on militants.
“We will face the charges filed against us,” Wa Lone told reporters as he and Kyaw Soe Oo were led out of the court and back to Yangon’s Insein prison after the 30-minute hearing.
Khin Maung Zaw, a lawyer representing the two journalists, said the charges being sought came under Section 3 (1)(c) of the British colonial-era Official Secrets Act.
The act dates back to 1923, when Myanmar, then known as Burma, was a province of British India.
Section 3 covers entering prohibited places, taking images or handling secret official documents that “might be or is intended to be, directly or indirectly, useful to an enemy”.
The Ministry of Information had previously cited police as saying they were “arrested for possessing important and secret government documents related to Rakhine State and security forces”. The ministry has said they “illegally acquired information with the intention to share it with foreign media”.
The case was adjourned until Jan 23.
The prosecutor objected to an application for bail, their lawyer Khin Maung Zaw said. The court took it under consideration and will decide at the next hearing, he said.
The government has said two police officers were also arrested for investigation under the Official Secrets Act. It has given no further information on the police arrested.
Observers from the United Nations and from several embassies, including the Netherlands, Australia and Britain, were at the court along with relatives of the two journalists.
About 30 journalists were also outside the court, most dressed in black as a sign of protest against the arrest of the pair. Several had the message “journalism is not a crime” or“release the arrested journalists now” on their T-shirts.
Police were on duty outside the court, and some areas were cordoned off with barbed wire.
The two were brought to court in a police vehicle and emerged from it smiling, both in handcuffs. Wa Lone gave a thumbs-up sign.
Government officials from some of the world’s major nations, including the United States, Britain and Canada, as well as top United Nations officials, have called for the release of the reporters.
Former US President Bill Clinton also urged that they be freed immediately.
“A free press is critical to a free society – the detention of journalists anywhere is unacceptable. The Reuters journalists being held in Myanmar should be released immediately,” Clinton said in a Twitter post on Monday.
Clinton was US president for much of the 1990s when the United States pressed Myanmar’s then military rulers to release democracy champion Aung San Suu Kyi from years of house arrest.
Suu Kyi won a 2015 election and formed a government in early 2016, although she is barred by the constitution from becoming president.
She has made no public comment on the detention of the two Reuters reporters. The government has denied that their arrests represent an attack on press freedom and Suu Kyi’s spokesman has said the case would be handled according to the law.
