Wives of Jailed Myanmar Journalists Shocked by Verdict

[TomSea]

Wives of Jailed Myanmar Journalists Shocked by Verdict
Aung Naing Soe / AP

(YANGON, Myanmar) — The wives of two Myanmar reporters for the Reuters news agency sentenced to seven years’ imprisonment for possessing state secrets said Tuesday they were shocked by the court’s decision.

Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo were sentenced Monday in proceedings that were widely decried as unfair. They had reported about the army’s brutal counterinsurgency campaign that drove 700,000 members of the Muslim Rohingya minority to flee to Bangladesh. The subject is sensitive in Myanmar because of worldwide condemnation of the military’s human rights abuses, which it denies.

Wa Lone’s wife, Pan Ei Mon, said at a news conference that she never expected such a harsh punishment “because everyone knows that they didn’t do anything wrong.” The two men testified that they had been framed by the police.

Read more at: http://time.com/5386921/myanmar-reuters-journalists-jailed-wives/