A friend of arrested Reuters journalists Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo pray at Shwedagon Pagoda in Yangon, Myanmar, January 7, 2018. REUTERS/Stringer
YANGON, January 7 (Reuters) - Myanmar has accused Reuters reporters Wa Lone, 31, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 27, of breaching the country's Official Secrets Act, a little-used law from colonial rule.
They are due to appear in court in the main city of Yangon on Wednesday. It will be their second appearance in court and the prosecutor could request that charges are filed against them.
Following is some information about the case.
THE TWO JOURNALISTS
Wa Lone's first job in journalism was with the People's Age journal. In 2014, he joined the English-language Myanmar Times, covering the 2015 election that swept Nobel peace prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi to power. Wa Lone wrote a children's book and co-founded a charity that promotes tolerance between different ethnic groups and helps orphans.
[caption id="attachment_328857" align="alignleft" width="312"]
FILE PHOTO: Reuters journalist Wa Lone, who was arrested in Myanmar, is seen in this July 29, 2014 photo. REUTERS/Stringer/File Photo[/caption]
Wa Lone joined Reuters in 2016 and made his mark with reports on sensitive subjects. His work on the crisis that erupted in Rakhine State in October 2016 won him a joint honourable mention from the Society of Publishers in Asia in its annual awards. He returned to the region last year, after attacks by Rohingya Muslim militants triggered a crackdown by the army and an exodus to Bangladesh of some 650,000 Rohingya.
Kyaw Soe Oo is an ethnic Rakhine Buddhist who grew up in the state capital, Sittwe. He started his reporting career with the online Rakhine Development News and later worked at the Root Investigative Agency.
Friends say Kyaw Soe Oo avoided becoming caught up in the tension between Rakhine Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims but the conflict drew him into journalism.
He has been with Reuters since September last year.
THE ARRESTS AND ACCUSATIONS
Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo were arrested on Dec. 12, after they were invited to meet police for dinner in Yangon, on suspicion of violating the Official Secrets Act. The Ministry of Information has cited the police as saying they were "arrested for possessing important and secret government documents related to Rakhine State and security forces".
The ministry said they had "illegally acquired information with the intention to share it with foreign media".
The government only announced the arrest of the reporters some 24 hours after they were detained and the two were held at an undisclosed location without contact with families or lawyers for two weeks.
They have told relatives they were arrested almost immediately after being handed some documents by two policemen who they met at the restaurant for the first time. They did not read the documents.
The government has said two police officers were also arrested and charged under the Official Secrets Act. According to the reporters, the police arrested were not those who provided the documents. The government has given no further information on the police arrested.
THE LAW
The Official Secrets Act dates back to 1923, when Myanmar, then known as Burma, was a province of British India. It carries a maximum prison sentence of 14 years.
Legal experts say prosecutions under it have been rare.
The most well-documented recent case was in 2014, when the Unity Journal weekly published an article it said exposed a secret military chemical weapons factory.
Police arrested the newspaper's chief executive and four journalists. A civilian court sentenced them to 10 years in prison with hard labour - later reduced to seven years. The case was widely seen as a warning that military affairs remained off-limits even though direct military rule had ended and censorship had been lifted.
The five were released under an amnesty in April 2016, soon after Suu Kyi's party came to power.
THE COURT PROCEEDINGS
Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo were held incommunicado by the police for two weeks before appearing in court on Dec. 27, when they were remanded for another two weeks. During the hearing, they were allowed to meet relatives and a lawyer for the first time since being arrested.
Only their lawyer and relatives, along with police and government lawyers, were allowed into the court. The reporters said they had not been mistreated in custody.
They are due to appear in court again on Wednesday.
REACTION
Government officials from some of the world's major nations, including the United States, Britain and Canada, as well as top U.N. officials, have called for the release of the journalists.
Surakiart Sathirathai, a former Thai foreign minister and the head of a new international advisory panel on the Rohingya crisis, also expressed concern at the arrest of the reporters and said he hoped the case did not lead to broader restrictions on the international media.
Several non-governmental and journalist organisations have called the arrests an attack on the freedom of the press.
[caption id="attachment_328867" align="aligncenter" width="800"]
Friends and relatives of arrested Reuters journalists Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo pray at Shwedagon Pagoda in Yangon, Myanmar, January 7, 2018. REUTERS/Stringer[/caption]
Friends of detained Reuters reporter pray for his release
YANGON (Reuters) - Friends of Reuters reporter Wa Lone gathered on Sunday at one of the main Buddhist pagodas in Myanmar's commercial capital Yangon to pray for his release from prison, where he has been held with a colleague on suspicion of violating the Official Secrets Act.
Journalists Wa Lone, 31, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 27, were detained on Dec. 12. They had worked on Reuters coverage of a crisis in the western state of Rakhine, where an estimated 655,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled from a fierce military crackdown on militants.
The two are due to appear in court on Wednesday. It will be their second appearance in court and the prosecutor could request that charges are filed against them.
"We miss him and want him to be free," said Thant Zin Soe, among a group of about a dozen of Wa Lone's friends who knelt beneath the Sule Pagoda's towering golden stupa, hands clasped before then, to chant a special Buddhist mantra.
"We believe that this mantra will set them free, that's why we're reciting it."
In Myanmar, which is still in transition after almost half a century of strict military rule, shows of support for journalists and others who run afoul of the authorities are not common.
Last week, a government spokesman, when asked about a campaign of support for the two reporters on social media, said people should not undertake such efforts while a case was being heard in court.
Thant Zin Soe said he did not want to comment on the circumstances of the reporters' arrest, except to say: "It's not a good thing to hear that a reporter got arrested when he was doing his job.
"We're marching towards democracy, it's not a good thing for the democratisation process."
