Arakan News Agency
Pressure from prominent individuals in the international community and rights groups is mounting on the Myanmar government to release two Reuters journalists detained in December on charges of violating the country’s colonial-era Official Secrets Act, with former U.S. President Bill Clinton now calling for their immediate release.
Police arrested Thet Oo Maung, also known as Wa Lone, 31, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 27, on Dec. 12 for violating the law by allegedly illegally possessing classified documents about security forces in northern Aralan state, where a military crackdown has driven about 655,000 Rohingya Muslims into neighboring Bangladesh since August 2017.
“A free press is critical to a free society — the detention of journalists anywhere is unacceptable,” Clinton said in a Twitter post on Monday. “The Reuters journalists being held in Myanmar should be released immediately.”
Authorities picked up Thet Oo Maung and Kyaw Soe Oo after they met with two police officers on the outskirts of Yangon. They were working on stories about the crackdown when authorities accused them of sending “important security documents regarding security forces in Arakan state to foreign agencies abroad,” according to a government statement.
The two journalists, who are being held in Insein Prison on the outskirts of Yangon, are due in court on Wednesday for their second hearing during which the prosecutor could request that charges be filed against them, Reuters reported.
If found guilty, they could be spend up to 14 years in prison.
Also on Tuesday, London-based Amnesty International urged Myanmar authorities to immediately release the pair.
