\n Two Myanmar Reuters journalists will file an appeal this week against a seven-year prison sentence linked to reporting on the Rohingya crisis, their defence lawyer said Monday.\n<\/p>\n
\n Wa Lone, 32, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 28, were sentenced early September under a hardline state secrets act while investigating the massacre of 10 Rohingya Muslims during the military's bloody crackdown last year.\n<\/p>\n
\n Condemnation echoed around the world after what was widely regarded as a sham trial and an effort to silence media scrutiny of the army's campaign against the Rohingya.\n<\/p>\n
\n Defence lawyer Khin Maung Zaw told AFP that \"everything is ready\" for an appeal to be filed before the deadline on Saturday.\n<\/p>\n
\n Myanmar's civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi refused to intervene during the trial even though her government had the power to drop the charges.\n<\/p>\n
\n But Myanmar's president - a Suu Kyi proxy - could now pardon the pair.\n<\/p>\n
\n The appeal process should not affect the request for a presidential pardon, lawyer Khin Maung Zaw added.\n<\/p>\n
\n However, the High Court is likely to take up to five or six months to rule on the appeal, leaving the reporters in jail.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"I'm quite confident,\" Khin Maung Zaw said.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"But in our country, nothing is certain. Anything can happen.\"\n<\/p>\n
\n If the High Court upholds the verdict, the reporters will appeal to the country's Supreme Court in a process that would take at least another six months.\n<\/p>\n
\n President Win Myint has issued pardons in the past and also intervened in the recent case of three reporters arrested over an article accusing the Yangon government of financial mismanagement.\n<\/p>\n
\n But Win Myint has so far refrained from commenting on the Reuters case.\n<\/p>\n
\n Pardoning Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo could antagonise the still-mighty military and stoke resentment from a public that is largely apathetic - if not hostile - towards the duo's plight.\n<\/p>\n
\n Many in Myanmar regard the Rohingya as illegal immigrants and have little sympathy for their cause.\n<\/p>\n
\n The military-led crackdown that started in August last year forced more than 720,000 Rohingya into sprawling camps in Bangladesh with refugees bringing horrific testimony of murder, rape and arson.\n<\/p>\n
\n UN investigators are urging for the prosecution of Myanmar's top generals for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity at the International Criminal Court (ICC).\n<\/p>\n
\n Myanmar and its military vehemently reject the court's jurisdiction over the country and deny nearly all allegations of wrongdoing.\n<\/p>\n
\n They insist the campaign was a legitimate response to attacks by Rohingya militants.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Two Myanmar Reuters journalists will file an appeal this week against a seven-year prison sentence linked to reporting on the Rohingya crisis, their defence lawyer said Monday. Wa Lone, 32, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 28, were sentenced early September under a hardline state secrets act while investigating the massacre of 10 Rohingya Muslims during the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":60,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[553],"tags":[],"ji_location":[],"class_list":["post-39368","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-live-feed"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n