A court in Myanmar on Monday postponed till September 3 the verdict in the case against two Reuters journalists accused of breaching the country’s Official Secrets Act, Reuters reported. The matter was postponed owing to the judge’s poor health.
In July, a court had charged the two jailed journalists – Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo – with breaching the colonial-era Official Secrets Act, 1923, which carries a maximum penalty of 14 years in prison. Both the men have been in jail since December.
Defence lawyer Khin Maung Zaw said that the stand-in judge had said the verdict was ready but it had to be pronounced by the judge assigned to the case. In April, the court refused to dismiss the case, saying there was a “proper reason” for the charges against the journalists.
“We are not afraid or shaken,” Wa Lone. “The truth is on our side. Whatever the situation is, we will not be shaken. They cannot make us weak.”
The journalists had been working on a Reuters investigation into the killing of 10 Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine state’s Inn Din village during an army crackdown in 2017. The two were arrested after they were invited to meet police officers for dinner in the north of Yangon. The Ministry of Information said they had “illegally acquired information with the intention to share it with foreign media”.
The case has drawn widespread international attention, with the United States, Britain and Canada as well as the United Nations calling for the reporters to be freed.
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