YANGON: Lawyers for two Reuters reporters jailed in Myanmar asked a judge on Wednesday to dismiss the case against them, arguing there was insufficient evidence to support charges of obtaining secret government papers.
A court in Yangon has been holding preliminary hearings since January to decide whether Wa Lone, 31, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 28, will be charged under the colonial-era Official Secrets Act, which carries a maximum penalty of 14 years in prison.
Defence and prosecution lawyers made legal arguments in front of Judge Ye Lwin on Wednesday, after the defence filed a motion to have the case thrown out last week.
The reporters’ lawyers argued that the testimony from witnesses called by the prosecution was insufficient to charge the pair. They also pointed to what they said were inconsistencies in witness testimony and procedural mistakes made by the authorities during the arrest and subsequent searches.
“At this stage, after we’ve examined 17 witnesses, there’s nothing in the preliminary testimonies so they should be released now without being charged,” defence lawyer Khin Maung Zaw told reporters after the hearing.
During previous hearings one of the police witnesses told the court he had burned his notes from the time of the arrests. A civilian witness had the location where police say the arrests was made — which emerged as a key point of contention during the proceedings — written on his hand.
Another witness said he had signed the search form recording the reporters’ arrests before the items seized from them had been filled in.
Lead prosecutor Kyaw Min Aung argued against the dismissal of the case, reiterating the prosecution’s position that the documents the reporters had in their possession were secret and that the court could assume they intended to harm the security of the country.
Myanmar’s government spokesman, Zaw Htay, said by telephone that under Myanmar’s constitution the courts were independent, “so the judge will decide whether to dismiss the case or not”.
Judge Ye Lwin adjourned the proceedings until April 11, when he is expected to rule on the dismissal motion. Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo have been in custody since their arrests on Dec 12.
The journalists had been working on a Reuters investigation into the killing of 10 Rohingya Muslim men in the village of Inn Din, in western Myanmar’s Rakhine state, during an army crackdown that has sent nearly 700,000 people fleeing to Bangladesh.
Senior UN officials, Western nations and press freedom advocates have called for the release of the journalists. — Reuters
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