Detained Reuters journalists await verdict in Myanmar

Yangon (dpa) - A Yangon judge is expected to rule on Monday in the high-profile case of two Reuters journalists detained under a colonial-era law for allegedly possessing top-secret documents.

Wa Lone, 32, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 28, were arrested on December 12 under the Official Secrets Act. The pair were investigating a massacre of 10 Rohingya men and boys in the country’s western Rakhine State.

Their killing came as the Myanmar military launched a “clearance operation” - which the United Nations says amounts to ethnic cleansing - in response to August 2017 attacks by Rohingya militants on police outposts.

Their trial has become a landmark press freedom case for the country. It is also the most high-profile trial since former democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi’s party came to power in 2015, amid high expectations that Myanmar would continue to open up after decades of military dictatorship.

Since 2017 at least 11 journalists have been arrested, prompting journalists both domestic and foreign to decry her government’s backsliding on gains made under the former quasi-civilian Thein Sein government.

The military crackdown against the Rohingya, a Muslim minority native to Rakhine State, caused more 700,000 to flee into neighbouring Bangladesh. Almost all are still there in refugee camps.

The reporters have accused the Myanmar police of torture in the early days of their interrogation, including sleep deprivation and being held in stress positions. Police authorities deny the claims.

Both plead not guilty. If convicted they face a maximum prison sentence of 14 years.