Former information minister call for Reuters retrial

05 October 2018
Former information minister call for Reuters retrial
Myanmar’s former information minister U Ye Htut.

Myanmar’s former information minister on Thursday called for a review and retrial of a case involving two Reuters reporters sentenced to seven years in prison for breaching a law on state secrets, RFA reported.

Ye Htut, a former lieutenant colonel in the Myanmar Army who served as information minister from 2014 to 2016, said Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo should be retried on account of heavy pressure from the international community to release them, and that the case against them was handled improperly.

The two were sentenced on Sept. 3 after spending nine months in jail while they attended hearings on charges that they obtained confidential documents during their reporting on the crackdown in western Myanmar’s Rakhine state.