American journalist Danny Fenster, arrested after the military coup in Myanmar, has been sentenced to 11 years in prison by a military tribunal.
It is a severe punishment that is likely to be followed by others.
Because the verdict on Friday was only about three out of five counts, one of which is "incitement to riot".
A few days ago, two points were added.
Since then, the 37-year-old American has also been accused of terrorism.
For this he faces life imprisonment.
Till Fähnders
Political Correspondent for Southeast Asia.
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Window's employer, the English-language magazine Frontier Myanmar, was "deeply disappointed" with the verdict. It was spoken in the infamous Insein Prison in Yangon, where Fenster has been incarcerated for months. The punishment against him was the severest possible under the indictment. The allegations relate solely to his work for the Myanmar Now website, which Fenster was only employed until July 2020.
Afterwards, Fenster was the chief editor of the magazine, which reported extensively on the coup against the government of Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi and the violent repression of the military against the protest movement. Fenster was arrested at Yangon airport in late May when he was flying back to the United States. The heavy jail sentence is "a mockery of justice" by a corrupt court under the direction of the military junta, said Phil Robertson, vice Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “Danny Fenster did nothing that could be considered a crime. The wrong judgment should be overturned and windows should be released immediately. "
Nobody should go to jail just for reporting what is happening in Myanmar.
The conviction of the window was intended to intimidate local journalists.
The message reads, "If we can do this to a foreigner, what do you think we will do to you," said Robertson.