Japanese journalist sentenced to ten years in prison
A Japanese journalist has been sentenced to ten years in prison for encouraging dissent against the ruling Burmese military and breaking an electronic communications law.
Toru Kubota was arrested in Rangoon at the end of July while covering a demonstration against the junta. The part of his trial concerning possible violations of immigration law “is continuing”, a Japanese diplomatic source told AFP on Thursday.
The 26-year-old videographer was tried in Insein prison in Yangon, where many political prisoners are held.
According to his Instagram account, in 2019 he made a documentary about the Rohingyas, a Muslim minority living in Burma who fled a bloody repression by the army and Buddhist militias.
Section 505(b) against dissent is a loosely worded law, often used against journalists or activists on the pretext of statements that may cause public fear or concern, which provides for a sentence of up to three years in prison.
He is the fifth foreign journalist since the February 1, 2021 coup to have been arrested by the junta, after Americans Danny Fenster and Nathan Maung, Pole Robert Bociaga and Japanese Yuki Kitazumi, all of whom were eventually released. and expelled.
In a tally up to March 31, 122 journalists have been arrested since the February 2021 coup, and 48 remain in detention, according to Reporting ASEAN. Only China jailed more journalists than Burma in 2021, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).
Since the putsch that tipped the country into chaos, more than 2,200 civilians have been killed by the security forces and more than 15,000 arrested, according to a local NGO.
AFP
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